Rutelli Ruminations: Pronouncements of The Great Repatriator

In Time magazine’s Looking Around blog, Richard Lacayo posts a revealing interview with Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli.
We learn that even The Great Repatriator believes there’s got to be some kind of claims cut-off date for when cultural objects left the country of origin. In discussing Monteleone’s claim for the Metropolitan Museum’s Etruscan Chariot, he says:
It’s right to distinguish between works that were stolen—in Italy, after the 1939 law that oversees patrimony, and above all the UNESCO Convention of 1970 that fights the trafficking of artworks—and those sold 100 years ago. Otherwise, we just might have to deal with Napoleon’s plundering!
So which is it, then: 1939 or 1970?
What’s needed is a date (and other guidelines) that all sides can agree on. But not even American museums can agree among themselves on appropriate procedures. So case-by-case chaos still reigns.