Posted on: April 5, 2018 by Kiri Cragin Folwell
Assistant Director Alexander Herman was quoted yesterday in the New York Times article U.K. Museum Offers Ethiopia Long-Term Loan of Looted Treasures. Alexander commented on treasures taken from Ethiopia 150 years ago that could be returned on a long-term loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum. He said, “The loan is a powerful method of […]
Posted on: March 21, 2018 by William Hawkes
An article in The Art Newspaper by Ben Luke on the 15th of March 2018 poses an interesting question regarding the work of the conservator. The article concerned the condition of the painting depicting Christ as Salvator Mundi, by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1500. This article raised the question “Should the […]
Posted on: December 12, 2017 by Holly Woodhouse
A golden crown dating from the fourth-century BC will be returned to Turkey following an out-of-court settlement between a Turkish national residing in Scotland and the Government of Turkey. The crown, reported to have been valued at £250,000, was in the possession of Edinburgh café owner Murat Aksakalli, who claimed to have inherited it from […]
Posted on: August 30, 2017 by IAL Admin
A UK man, Toby Robyns, was apprehended ten days ago by Turkish authorities, as he tried to leave Turkey with a dozen coins. He had found the coins with his children on the seabed while snorkelling. He is still in prison, awaiting a decision by the Turkish courts. Our Assistant Director, Alexander Herman, was interviewed […]
Posted on: August 9, 2017 by Emily Gould
As promised in our post last week, having looked at developments in the fight against heritage crime in the UK, we’re now turning our attention to the international context. We were considering in particular a number of interesting developments across a range of disciplines: the law, military practice, technology and community engagement. As regards the […]
Posted on: May 18, 2017 by Emily Gould
Tomorrow (Friday 19th May), a new convention intended to tackle international cultural property crime will be opened for signature by the Council of Europe (the ‘CoE’, Europe’s leading human rights organisation, including 47 member states, set up to promote democracy and protect human rights and the rule of law in Europe; not to be confused with […]
Posted on: February 23, 2017 by Emily Gould
*Update: On the day of going to press, we later discovered that, with impressive speed and efficiency, the Bill received Royal Assent, so look out for further posts on the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act 2017! As of this Monday (20 February) the UK is now one step closer to ratifying the 1954 Hague Convention […]
Posted on: November 5, 2016 by Emily Gould
Following our post earlier this week on the second reading in the House of Commons of the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill, we were interested to read an article in The Times the next day by Sir Edward Garnier, QC, MP and former solicitor-general.* Sir Edward had rehearsed, at some length during the Commons debate, the […]
Posted on: November 2, 2016 by Emily Gould
As promised in our blog post in early July, we wanted to keep you updated on the progress through Parliament of the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill, which will enable the UK, finally, to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention. The Bill received its second reading in the House of Commons this week (31st October). It […]
Posted on: July 4, 2016 by Emily Gould
It was heartening to see the strong support for the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill 2016 when it was debated at the Committee Stage in the House of Lords last week (28 June). The Lords discussed at length, and with some passion, the amendments tabled by a number of peers. The proposals for changes came […]