Mobilization of France
France, up to the highest level of the state, is mobilizing to act against the massive looting of archaeological sites and fight against the illicit trafficking of Syrian and Iraqi cultural property.
The Head of State, in person, recalled it during his intervention at UNESCO on 17 November 2015 Leaders' Forum, held on the occasion of the 38th session of the General Conference in its speech in favour of culture and for the fight against obscurantism.
The report by Jean-Luc Martinez, President and Director of the Louvre Museum, presented in November 2015 to the President of the Republic, issued 50 proposals for concrete actions for the protection of endangered heritage, a large part of which is dedicated to the fight against the trafficking of cultural property.
At the initiative of the Minister for Culture and Communication and her colleague from the interior, appropriate measures involving theUNESCO, INTERPOL, EUROPOL, the WCO (World Customs Organisation) and other national structures (Central Office for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property-OCBC, customs) which participate in the fight against the trafficking of cultural goods, are encouraged to mark the strengthening of international and European cooperation.
Customs and all the other actors involved are mobilizing for enhanced surveillance of imports of cultural goods from countries throughout the area.
5 measures to combat illicit trafficking in cultural property and preserve endangered heritage
The Freedom of Creation, Architecture and Heritage Act, promulgated on 7 July 2016, introduces five additional measures to combat trafficking in cultural property (article 56) codified in the heritage code:
- Article L111-8 : establishment of customs controls for cultural goods imported into France, making it possible to better apply the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Trafficking in Cultural Property to works from other States Parties;
- Article L 111-9 Prohibition of movement and trade for cultural property unlawfully removed from a State subject to a UN Security Council resolution (such as Iraqi and Syrian cultural property, in accordance with Article 17 of Security Council Resolution 2199);
- Article L111-10 : deposit and exhibition in a museum in France of cultural property seized in customs because of their illegal exit from a non-EU country pending the identification of their rightful owner.
- Article L111-11 : reception in temporary storage for safe-keeping in France («refuges») of foreign cultural property threatened by armed conflict or natural disaster, at the request of the Government concerned or when a resolution of the United Nations Security Council provides;
- Article L124-1 Cancellation of entry into public collections of property acquired in good faith after the 1997 ratification of the UNESCO Convention of 1970, but it would prove a posteriori that they were originally stolen or illegally exported.
A new criminal offence
In the law of 3 June 2016 strengthening the fight against organised crime, terrorism and their financing, and improving the efficiency and guarantees of criminal proceedings, states in Article 29: is punished seven years in prison and a €100,000 fine for importing, exporting, transporting, holding, selling, acquiring or exchanging cultural property of archaeological interest, artistic, historical or scientific knowledge that this property was removed from a territory that, at the time of the subtraction, constituted a theatre of operations for terrorist groups and could not justify the lawfulness of the origin of this property.” This new criminal offence, necessary in order to punish acts that contribute to the financing of terrorism, makes it possible to strengthen the fight against organized crime, terrorism and their financing, and to improve the efficiency and guarantees of the criminal procedure (see Criminal Code, Article 322-3-2).
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