Convention for a Cleaner Antiquities Market in Europe

Dr. Derek Fincham has some thoughts on the new convention on Illegal Antiquities ("Council of Europe Considers a Blood Antiquities Convention", May 19, 2017):

On Friday, May 19, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will meet to open a new treaty for signatures on a new Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property. Given that the Council of Europe now has 47 member states, including both Russia and Turkey, the impact of this new Convention could be immense. This is particularly true given that the member states of the Council of Europe include art-acquiring states, transit states, and states with ancient monuments.  The Convention may even allow any non-Council state to sign on to the Convention. The work of this draft Convention could catapult the member states of the Council of Europe to the head of the pack in embracing the complementary international conventions aimed at stemming the illicit trade in cultural property.

Collectors and reputable dealers will welcome this move to make sure that those who sell illegal antiquities in Europe are excluded from the market, making it a safer place to buy them. Let us hope though that the Convention does not make the buying ancient art more difficult or expensive, for example by empowering the opponents of collecting to continue their unreasonable pressure to consider objects that lack documented provenance in some way 'illegal'.