In May 1994, the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to Its Countries of Origin or Its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation recommended that the Director-General of UNESCO be invited to have specialised studies made by experts to clarify issues in cultural objects that are disputed or unclear. Collectors (both public and private), dealers, archaeologists, conservators and other specialists around the world were consulted either in person or by correspondence during its preparation.
Introduction
Collecting and controversy
Interests
Archaeologists
Impoverished local populations
Indigenous peoples
Dealers and auction houses
Art historians
Collectors
Public
The problem with trade and collecting
Sources of antiquities
Collections
Monuments
Finds
Legal restrictions
Market demands
Destruction
Theft from collections
Protecting the sources
Reducing destruction and theft
Controls
State ownership
Standards of behaviour
Databases
Changing the market
Render collecting anti-social
Render certain collecting anti-social
Reduce taxation incentives
Trade incentives
Financial assistance
Increase volume flow
Collections
Chance finds
New excavations
Export restrictions
Changing the law
Limitations
Secrecy
Education and publicity
Education of professionals
Education and local populations
Education of the public
Education of special groups
Publicity
UNESCO support
Codes of Ethics
Investigations
Co-operation
Primacy of information retrieval
Conclusion
Selected bibliography
Appendices
Extract from 'Canada's Cultural Property Export and Import Act: The Experience of Protecting Cultural Property'
IADAA Code of Ethics and Practice
British Code of Practice for the Control of International Trading in Works of Art
UNESCO Draft Code of Ethics for Dealers in Cultural Property
Code of Ethics for Professionals Concerned With the Antiquities of the Near and Middle East
Loans and Acquisitions of Archaeological Objects by Museums (The Berlin Declaration 1988)
Principles for Partnership in Cross-Cultural Human Sciences Research with a Particular View to Archaeology
Extract from 'The Good Collector and the Premise of Mutual Respect Among Nations'
