LONDON, ENGLAND.- Arts Minister Estelle Morris today said museums must respond to the growing problem of illicit traffic in cultural property by drawing up firmer guidelines on collecting practices. The Minister was responding to a seminar for UK museum directors held in the Department for Culture Media and Sport. The seminar discussed problems associated with collecting cultural objects from overseas, and arrangements for providing temporary safety for such objects in the event of war.  

Estelle Morris said:  “The international trade in illicit cultural artefacts is a growing problem, and one that was highlighted most recently by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The number of stolen, illicitly excavated or illegally exported items has increased considerably. The Government is determined to reduce this problem. Last year we acceded to the UNESCO Convention on illicit trade in cultural property, while this year will see the coming into force of the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act.”    

“It is vitally important that museums in this country should have robust procedures in place for assessing the legality of potential acquisitions and loans. Today’s seminar has brought museum directors together with the Government to consider how to develop practical guidance for museums to follow. We want the museums themselves to be responsible for developing such good practice guidance rather than our imposing it on them.” 

Following the seminar, small working groups are to be established to draft guidelines for approval by the Illicit Trade Advisory Panel and the DCMS as recommended good practice for museums to follow. 

The proposal for a seminar intended to involve museum directors in the development of guidelines on collecting practices was originally put forward by the Illicit Trade Advisory Panel. In its report of December 2001 the Panel endorsed the Museums Association Code of Conduct which states that “museums should not accept on loan, acquire, exhibit or assist the current possessor of, any object that has been acquired in, or exported from, its country of origin (or intermediate country in which it may have been legally owned) in violation of that country’s laws.  

The DCMS Illicit Trade Advisory Panel’s membership is drawn from archaeologists, museums and the art trade. The Panel’s report, published in December 2000, marked a very significant landmark in developing public policy in this area, not least because it represented, for the first time, a consensus between all those interested in developing practical measures to raise standards in the marketplace.  

Apart from museum directors, the seminar included members of the DCMS Ministerial Advisory Panel on Illicit Trade, museum practitioners, representatives of acquisition-funding bodies, such as the NACF, and individuals with experience of developing museum policies and procedures on illicit trade.