Cultural Property Advisory Committee: NY Times Exposes the Secrecy

I’m going to break my self-imposed three-day blogging gag to direct you to a must-read in tomorrow’s NY Times “Arts & Leisure” section: Jeremy Kahn‘s detailed exploration of the controversies embroiling the State Department’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee, which considers requests of foreign governments for U.S. import restrictions on cultural patrimony deemed at risk.
In a marked departure from the Sunday section’s usual emphasis on light features, Kahn does an exhaustive reporting job and saves the best for last—exposing CPAC’s lack of transparency. I wonder what a formal challenge under Freedom of Information and Sunshine laws might elicit.
In an otherwise thorough job, Kahn fails to address one crucial aspect of this controversy. I’ll have more to say on the subject next week.
Meanwhile, you can peruse these links: State Department’s International Cultural Property Protection website; Chinese government’s long-pending request for sweeping import restrictions.