Stolen Works of Art > Conferences and meetings

ACKNOWLEDGING the on-going disastrous looting of world archaeological sites,

AWARE of the lack of precise information on the pillaging and subsequent trafficking of Afghan cultural property,

CONSIDERING the lack of public awareness of the need for the protection of cultural heritage,

NOTING the need of national law enforcement agencies for acknowledged experts stating the origin and the authenticity of suspicious cultural property thought to come from Iraq,

RECALLING the recommendation adopted at the first meeting of the Interpol Expert Group held at the General Secretariat on 17 February 2004 that UNESCO, with the assistance of staff from Iraqi museums and other scientific institutions concerned, draw up a list of experts and organizations which may be consulted, via the Interpol National Central Bureaus, about the origins of archaeological objects seized by law-enforcement services,

RECOGNIZING that the internet is being increasingly used to sell cultural property,

Recommend :

• Interpol member countries:
  • to raise public awareness of the need for the protection of cultural property and use the media to disseminate appropriate preventive measures;
    
    
• The Interpol General Secretariat:
• to publish as soon as possible on its secure web site the list of experts for Iraqi cultural property established by UNESCO in order to make this tool available without further delay and to inform its member countries;
• to include the list of experts in its future Global Interpol Experts Database;
• to sensitize Interpol member countries to decentralize access to this database through the I-24/7 to enable law enforcement officers to use this list of experts;

• UNESCO:
• to continue to collect and make rapidly available information on the actual situation of pillaging and trafficking of Afghan cultural property as a basis for targeted countermeasures;

• The INTERPOL General Secretariat, UNESCO and ICOM:
  • to publish simultaneously a press release following the dispatch of the joint letter concerning the sale of cultural property using the Internet;
  • to continue to support training initiatives in the fight against the illicit traffic in cultural property.