The Continued Struggle with Stolen Cultural Property: the Hague Convention, the UNESCO Convention and the UNIDROIT Draft Convention

Unchecked international trade in plundered treasures and artwork is a trade that hijacks cultural heritage and destroys scientific clues to humanity's common past. The international marketplace for art, artifacts, and antiquities is a billion dollar market. International movement of works of art, including permanent transfers of works of art from one nation to another is nothing new. However, relatively novel is the virtually wholesale illicit expatriation of artwork from nations rich in cultural heritage to nations that are rich in economic terms. The economic incentives acting in favor of both illicit and legitimate transfers have, in many cases, become absolutely staggering. Van Gogh's Irises was sold at auction in 1987 for $53.9 million. A Picasso self-portrait sold for $47.85 million in May of 1989. Also, the prices of antiquities, many of which had been plundered and looted, are soaring: "In one night the Museum of Ibadan in Nigeria was emptied. A treasure trove of bronze and terra cotta figures disappeared from another Nigerian museum at Ife. Antique dealer Ralph Kiehlo, who works from Cotonou, Benin's chief port, puts a value of $250 million US on the Ife hoard."