International Standing Conference on the Traffic in Illicit Antiquities: the Cambridge Resolution

We, the participants in the Symposium ‘Illicit Antiquities: the Destruction of the World’s Archaeological Heritage’ held at the McDonald Institute, Cambridge from 22 to 25 October 1999, hereby resolve that there be instituted an International Standing Conference on the Traffic in Illicit Antiquities (ISCOTIA), whose members shall be the heritage and antiquities directorates of national governments, national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations concerned with the protection of the world’s cultural heritage, universities and research institutes in the fields of archaeology and conservation, and national and international learned societies and professional bodies concerned with the protection of the world’s cultural heritage. We hereby appoint an interim International Standing Committee on the Traffic in Illicit Antiquities with the objectives of (a) organizing the first meeting of the Standing Conference, and (b) promoting the aims of the Standing Conference.

Among the aims and objectives of the International Standing Conference on the Traffic in Illicit Antiquities shall be to:

1. seek the protection of archaeological and historical sites, monuments and landscapes from destruction or damage through public works, commercial developments or unauthorized excavation by looters and others
2. promote the understanding by local communities of their own cultural heritage through education, the development of local museums and site museums, and the organization of an effective antiquities service in every nation;
3. institute effective national legislation for the protection of the cultural heritage and the support of international agreements, including specifically the ratification by every nation of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects;
4. make widely understood that the principal significance of cultural objects and artefacts resides in the information which they provide about the human past, that this information comes principally from their context of discovery as documented by systematic excavation and careful publication, and that such information is irretrievably lost when objects are separated from their context of discovery without full documentation;
5. seek agreement among museums and private collectors that the appearance on the market of antiquities without provenance is likely to be the result of looting (i.e. clandestine excavation and illegal export) and that it is consequently inappropriate to purchase antiquities without documented provenance (unless these can incontrovertibly be shown to have been known prior to 1970);
6. persuade collectors (and museums) that the ownership (and display) by them of unprovenanced antiquities should be seen as shameful and offensive to those concerned for the world’s cultural heritage, and that far from according protection to the heritage by curating such antiquities their cash and encouragement promotes the looting process;
7. persuade conservators, scientists and scholars that it is inappropriate to undertake conservation work, authentication or scholarly research in connection with unprovenanced antiquities on the grounds that such work ultimately facilitates the marketing of antiquities and hence contributes to the cycle of looting and destruction;
8. persuade the tax regimes of national governments that tax benefits should not be accorded to those collectors who donate or bequeath unprovenanced antiquities to museums and other charitable organizations, and to persuade museums that they should not accept donations or bequests of unprovenanced antiquities;
9. encourage national governments to protest formally when unprovenanced antiquities originating within their borders are publicly offered for sale in other countries
10. engage the media of communication to promote effectively these aim and objectives and to expose the ‘prestige culture’ still surrounding certain museums and wealthy private individuals who continue conspicuously to collect unprovenanced antiquities.

The first interim International Standing Committee on the Traffic in Illicit Antiquities shall be the following:

• Dr George Abungu (Chairman)
  Director General, National Museums of Kenya
• Dr Walter Alva
  Institute Nacional de Cultura, Museo Arqueologico Nacional Bruning de Lambayeque, Peru
• H.E. Professor Senake Bandaranayake
  Ambassador of Sri Lanka to UNESCO, and Chair, International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management of ICOMOS
• Dr Neil Brodie (Executive Secretary)
  McDonald Institute, Cambridge, UK
• Professor Rick Elia
  Boston University, USA
• Professor Patty Gerstenblith
  De Paul University, USA: Editor, International Journal of Cultural Property
• Mr He Shuzhong
  National Administration on Cultural Heritage, People’s Republic of China
• Professor Colin Renfrew (Secretary)
  McDonald Institute, Cambridge, UK
• Dr Rachanie Thosarat
  Fine Arts Department, Thailand

The interim Committee shall have the power to co-opt. It was agreed that the interim Committee should also have some representation from the Mediterranean region.