Reacting to ISIS’s horrific plundering of and trafficking in cultural property to fund its operations, the House of Representatives yesterday passed H.R. 1493, a bill “to protect and preserve international cultural property at risk due to political instability, armed conflict, or natural or other disasters, and for other purposes.”
As described by its lead sponsor, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), this bill “would impose new import restrictions on cultural artifacts removed from Syria and would enhance coordination among U.S. government agencies working to protect cultural property around the world.”
Serving on a new Coordinating Committee on International Cultural Property Protection would be representatives of the Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, Interior and Justice, as well as the United States Agency for International Development and the Smithsonian Institution.
The bill would require the President to apply the import restrictions on archaeological or ethnological material from war-torn Syria. According to last February’s detailed Wall Street Journal report on terrorism’s “cultural casualties” in Syria, the U.S. government’s data “show the value of declared antiques imported from Syria jumped 134% in 2013 to $11 million. U.S. officials estimate the value of undeclared pieces is many multiples higher.”
Under the new bill, the President would be allowed to waive restrictions on the import of Syrian antiquities if the “foreign owner or custodian” of specified objects has asked that “such property be temporarily located in the United States for protection purposes.” A waiver could be made only if it would “not contribute to illegal trafficking in cultural property or financing of criminal or terrorist activities.”
In cases where the U.S. became the temporary safe haven for Syrian cultural property, the objects would have to be returned to their foreign owners or custodians upon request. The temporary custodians of this protected cultural heritage could be the U.S. Government or (more intriguingly for U.S. museums and universities) “a cultural or educational institution within the United States for the purpose of protection, restoration, conservation, study, or exhibition, without profit [emphasis added].”
The House-passed bill, which had bipartisan sponsors, has to clear the hurdle of Senate passage before it can be sent to the President for signing.
Hat-tip to Rick St. Hilaire‘s Cultural Heritage Lawyer blog for alerting me to the House’s passage of H.R. 1493.