iadaa - search results

Who opposes the antiquities trade and why? In the second part of this two-part article, Ivan Macquisten discusses the role of the media as well as cross-cultural misunderstandings in the debate of cultural property and the antiquities trade.

What is cultural property? What are antiquities? How do they differ? Why is it so difficult to distinguish what is legal and what is looted? In this two-part article, Ivan Macquisten answers basic questions regarding the antiquities trade.

Since April 2019, the final report of the ILLICID project has been hidden on a website. No surprise that it’s hidden. The result of the four-year study which cost €1.2 million in tax money can be summarized in a nine-page report. The IADAA has taken a closer look.

The European Union has passed its proposals for the import licensing of cultural property – unfortunately taking a big step backwards in the process. IADAA continues to argue that the measures fail to meet the EU’s own standards of proportionality.

Interpol has launched its new website. There is an interesting development: Baseless statements on the importance of illicit trade in cultural property were removed. This is important as these statements have been used in political argumentation.

In a BBC radio programme discussed ‘zombie statistics’, statistics being used to drive propaganda across many fields of interest. Statistics used as a basis of demanding new cultural property laws by German politicians were among those “zombies”.

After three years, the European Union has reached an agreement on a new system of import measures for cultural property. An article published by IADAA summarizes the most important changes.

Some politicians still believe that the funding of ISIS is based on the sale of looted antiquities. A US-American journalists has overturned this false claims. The criticism she earned challenges our appreciation of scientific freedom.

For the first time the World Customs Organisation has analysed in their Illicit Trade Report also the trafficking of cultural property. The figures show how absurd the claim is that trafficking of cultural property comes third in quantity after drugs and weapons.

Within the German coalition talks, the revision of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Property is also part of the agenda – as a concern of the Free Democratic Party. The law has proved to be unrealistic, which is why a complaint is pending before the European Commission.