The Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects Confirms a Separate Property Status for Cultural Treasures

In 1965, the United States Congress declared: advanced civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone, but must give full value and support to the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view to the future.

Therefore, Congress determined that it was necessary for the federal government to foster and support access to the arts and the humanities. Acknowledging that the arts belong to all the people of the United States, Congress found that "[t]o fulfill its educational mission, achieve an orderly continuation of free society, and provide models of excellence to the American people, the Federal Government must transmit the achievement and values of civilization from the past via the present to the future. As a result, Congress established the National Foundation on Arts and Humanities. Congressional focus on transmitting the achievements and values of civilization from the past to the future follows the concept of a cultural heritage for all humanity. That concept evolved from ideals set out in the preambles to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict [hereinafter Hague Convention] and to the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in 1970 [hereinafter 1970 UNESCO Convention].6 Such a concept is also incorporated in the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects [hereinafter UNIDROIT Convention], which was completed in Rome in 1995.