The UNIDROIT International Convention on the International Return od
Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects was adopted by a Diplomatic
Conference of 70 participating States plus 8 observer States in Rome on
24 June 1995.  When ratified, it will allow bi-lateral access to the
courts etc. of participating countries for lawsuits in which the law of
the country of EXPORT will apply in defining `stolen' or `illegally
exported'.

This new Interrnational Treaty is likely to be extremely important - it
has been under discussion for many years within both the cultural field
and the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law
(UNIDROIT).

I hope that the full text will; be posted on either our Departmental www
systems and/or ICOM as soon as I have time to scan and HTML format it -
later this week I hope.

I will post details on MUSEUM-L and CIDOC-L and copy to Cary Karp for the
other ICOM systems as soon as this is done.


Patrick Boylan
(Vice-Pres. of ICOM)
[log in to unmask]

================================================

On Thu, 6 Jul 1995, Peter Rauch wrote:

> (Cross-posted to [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
> [log in to unmask] Please bear with it.)
>
> The June 1995 issue of the ASC Newsletter (Association of Systematics
> Collections) has an article about "UNIDROIT Treaty Under Negotiation:
> Could Broaden Repatriation Claims to Include Flora and Fauna."
>
> "The UNIDROIT Convention on the International Return of Stolen or
> Illegally Exported Cultural Objects is currently being negotiated,
> with the most recent meeting taking place in Rome in June, 1995. The
> definition of "cultural object" includes flora and fauna. The term
> "illegally exported" includes materials that are claimed as cultural
> patrimony and hence are claimed to be under sovereign control by various
> national governments." The article goes on to detail various developments
> in recent negotiotions, and in particular the US government's and ASC's
> positions.
>
> This is NAGPRA's big brother! This is Federal Register Notice" 50 CFR 13-14's
> soul mate. How come no one has raised it for discussion in these forums,
> where our collection artifacts and specimens represent the targets of the
> Convention's attention?
> Peter R
>