U.S. Diplomatic Engagement and Cultural Heritage Protection.

• Author: Schwartz, Larry
• Position: Essay

Introduction

Although the State Department has engaged for many years in cultural heritage and property issues, we have never tried to integrate them into our broader foreign policy framework, actively using them in diplomacy to strengthen partnerships and advancing our national security. It is time for the U.S. to consider the adoption of a cultural heritage policy that can strengthen our diplomatic leadership, serve U.S. interests, and fit within today's expectations that foreign engagements begin with unambiguous bilateral cooperation.

There have been many good people at work on these matters--both in governments and in the reputable private sector. Recently, there have also been some good efforts to build interagency coordination initiatives in Washington that can bring together the various strands of interest and funding on cultural heritage. Yet in the meantime, there is much we can do without hesitation and without requiring major new resources or legislation--and it is happening already. U.S. diplomacy can embrace and most effectively build a cultural heritage policy by clearly assigning specific responsibilities to our public diplomacy field officers.

Foreign Policy and Heritage Protection

Many archaeologists and arts experts around the world have spoken out about the history and losses from purposeful destruction and global pillage of cultural heritage. The past two decades have provided vivid examples, some helpfully provided on videotape by the villains themselves.

The provenance and transfer of cultural property is a complex and politically fraught activity-and different than other property issues. Buildings have been falling down, or ripped down, as long as people have built them and art objects have been created, traded, stolen, treasured and destroyed just as long. Many people value cultural heritage as a way of understanding and transferring the complex story of human civilizations to future generations. Today, many governments are recognizing the importance of cultural and ethnological heritage for reasons of national pride and politics, or for economic benefits, such as in promoting tourism.

A global consensus seems to be building around the need to prevent systematic looting for political or economic benefit, including by terrorist groups and criminal syndicates, and a desire to manage transparent, legal markets for heritage.

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and South Asia, widespread instability and national security challenges to the United States and our partners has resulted from rapid population growth in countries run by failing governments and slow growth economies. The United States has worked very hard and spent a great deal of money to help strengthen the rule of law around the world, knowing as we do that terrorist and criminal enterprises grow and prosper where governments cannot provide basic law enforcement and critical services.

The time has come for the United States to engage with our partners to end the trafficking of antiquities especially from conflict regions, where we have seen evidence that terrorists and criminals are engaged in fundraising. We must do this out of our national security interests, asking partner nations to make real and substantial contributions to the resolution of these challenges. At the same time, our diplomacy can be a force for transparency for open, legal art markets--ensuring that American collectors and institutions, who make up more than 40% of the world's antiquities market, are not acquiring stolen property and being duped into financially supporting terrorist or other illegal activities.

Cultural Heritage: Wounded Pride

In most countries, cultural heritage is a source of national pride and a symbol of a nation's values and past achievements and is especially important among elites. At the same time, it is often poorly funded. So today, great ancient societies remain abandoned to the elements in advanced states of disrepair--and sadly, many are looted for treasures as well as for souvenirs.

At the same time, individuals or institutions all over the world collect cultural heritage pieces for educational display or research purposes; other collectors are arts traders, buying and selling antiquities, much like other businesses. The age-old process of trading antiquities--or systematically exploiting ancient tombs and cities has endowed not only the homes of individual collectors but also some of the great museums, universities and cultural institutions of the West. While in recent years the largest art dealers and institutions have made great efforts to assure the provenance of pieces they acquire, it is possible to see ample evidence through casual online browsing that the trade in antiquities of questionable legality is widespread.

Given America's status asthe largest destination for archaeological and ethnological objects from around the world, the discovery of recently stolen or illegally exported artifacts in our country not only makes Americans and our institutions accessories to crimes--possessing stolen property--but also threatens our relations with other countries.

We can actually do something about this. The State Department has had, but rarely used, the authority to negotiate bilateral Cultural Property Agreements with other countries for over 30 years. Moreover, the State Department's public diplomacy corps has capable Foreign Service officers at every overseas mission assigned to liaise with leading cultural institutions and ministries. What is missing is sustained leadership and an affirmative policy that engages global partners in a common effort to curb illegal trafficking in cultural heritage, especially in conflict regions. Effective diplomacy would draw America's extraordinary scholarly community, globally-recognized institutions and many reputable arts dealers into a collaborative relationship, advancing security interests and strengthening legal markets. By leaning forward, we can enhance America's image and simultaneously set a context of trust for resolving other bilateral matters.

Diplomatic Controversies and Cultural Property

The modern era of U.S. diplomatic engagement around cultural heritage dates back to World War II and the subsequent founding of the U.N. system. Nazi Germany's systematic looting of Europe's art treasures, and particularly the confiscated property of Jewish families is well known. Extraordinary and detail-conscious research efforts continue to this very day to resolve World War II era property restitution issues--including cultural treasures stolen from institutions or from private...