Antiquities Coalition: How Protection of Cultural Heritage Contributes to a Global Community?
Date：2023-07-05
Tess Davis, Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition, acknowledged the importance of museums in protecting cultural heritage and contributing to the global community in her speech in the third dialogue of the China-Europe-America Museums Cooperation Initiative. She mentioned the 20th anniversary of the looting of the National Museum of Iraq, which raised awareness about the illicit antiquities trade and led to concrete changes in laws and policies worldwide. Dr. Davis highlighted two significant developments: the growing recognition of theft from museums and the illicit antiquities trade as serious crimes, and the understanding that protecting cultural heritage requires a cross-sectoral approach involving various stakeholders. She emphasized the need for a global response to crimes against culture and calls for continued efforts to address this issue. Dr. Davis concluded by expressing gratitude for initiatives like the China-Europe-America Global Initiative and emphasized the importance of preserving our past for future generations.
Tess Davis, a lawyer and archaeologist by training, is Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition. She oversees the organization’s work to fight cultural racketeering and also manages the day-to-day operations of the institute’s staff in Washington, DC, as well as programs overseas. Since 2013, Davis has been affiliated with the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, at the University of Glasgow. She came to Scotland from the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation where she was Executive Director until 2012. Davis has been a legal consultant for the Cambodian and US governments and works with both the art world and law enforcement to keep looted antiquities off the market. She writes and speaks widely on these issues. After graduating magna cum laude from Boston University with a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology, Davis earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law. She now serves on the Board of Directors at the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and the Advisory Boards of Heritage Watch and the Ocean Foundation. She is admitted to the New York State Bar. In 2015, the Royal Government of Cambodia knighted Davis for her work to recover the country’s plundered treasures, awarding her the rank of Commander in the Royal Order of the Sahametrei.
Full text of the speech
Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen. It is a pleasure to join so many governments, organizations, colleagues, and friends from around the world in this international conference on Museums as Cultural Intermediaries in the Dialogue between Civilizations.
Again, my name is Tess Davis and I am the Executive Director of the Antiquities Coalition. As an organization dedicated to stopping the black market in cultural heritage, while increasing responsible cultural exchange, we are honored to join this important event. And we commend the China-Europe-America Museums Cooperation Initiative for again putting this issue on your agenda in 2023. As the program for today notes, museums are essential to the protection of cultural heritage, which in turn does much to contribute to the global community.
2023 is a fitting time to discuss how cultural heritage contributes to the global community, because this year marks the 20thanniversary of the looting of the National Museum of Iraq, as well as the widespread pillage at archaeological sites across the country by everyone from opportunistic criminals to terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. This was by no means the first example of cultural theft and destruction during wartime. But due to a combination of factors—including the sheer scale of the thefts, that the losses included touchstones from the cradle of Western civilization, and that they were beamed into the public’s living room on a 24-hour news cycle—the looting of the Iraq Museum changed the global conversation on the illicit antiquities trade, and broader threats to cultural heritage.
This tragedy raised awareness in the culture and the arts, the general public, and policymakers, galvanizing the international community, which directly and indirectly led to concrete changes in law and policy around the world. The anniversary is thus an opportunity to take stock of what has changed in the last two decades. And there has been a visible shift in the way the international community treats crimes against cultural heritage, even if much remains to be done.
First, there is a growing awareness that theft from museums, and the broader illicit antiquities trade, is a serious crime.
This may seem obvious to all of us, especially today on International Museum Day. But it was not always the case. The 1970 UNESCO Convention had helped to establish this idea that the looting and trafficking of archaeological sites was not just unethical, but illicit. And before the looting of the Iraq Museum, the treaty was already gaining in acceptance.
But, following this tragedy, the UN Security Council did much to further the conversation with a series of binding and unanimous resolutions. These were hugely important. This is because the Security Council is the only UN Body with the power to compel Member States. It can establish peacekeeping operations, impose binding sanctions and authorize military action. And yet it has a very narrow mandate: its main job is responding to threats to international peace and security. So by putting this issue on its agenda, at all, the Security Council was making a powerful statement: cultural theft and destruction can be a threat to international peace and security.
We’ve now seen many intergovernmental bodies follow the Security Council’s lead. If this process started after the Iraq Museum, it sharply accelerated after the Arab Spring and Egyptian Revolution, and especially after the rise of Daesh in Iraq and Syria. The international community has now recognized, time and again, that crimes against culture threaten human rights, national economies, and even global security.
Second, since the 2003 looting of the Iraq Museum, there has also been a growing awareness that protecting cultural heritage requires a cross sectoral approach. This is not a burden that archaeologists, or conservators, or restorers, or even museums should bear alone. We need government, law enforcement, the military, the private sector, and experts and institutions from the arts and culture at the table. Everyone has a role to play.
And building on this, third, crimes against culture cannot be solved by any one country. They require a global response. We see this too from the 2003 looting of the Iraq Museum. Stolen pieces were recovered not just in Iraq, but in multiple countries around the world, the United States, Switzerland, Japan, even on eBay. Over the last two decades, the international community has shown much willingness to tackle this problem through a number of international fora.
This global engagement reflects unprecedented momentum, but nonetheless, lack of political still remains the main obstacle to positive change. There is a great need to convene world leaders—of countries, intergovernmental organizations, indigenous peoples, and faiths—to raise awareness and grow support for coordinated action. It is especially important to continue moving the discussion beyond cultural officials and ministries, in recognizing that cultural crimes are not just a threat to our shared history, but again to human rights, national economies, and global security.
There is still much that can and should be done. But I think it’s important to acknowledge how far we have come over the last twenty years, and to thank initiatives like the China-Europe-America Global Initiative, and the many others speaking today, for their role in realizing this progress. It is only through these conversations that we can begin to ensure our past is preserved for the next generation. Thank you.
Related Posts
Connecting culture through design: Writing, typography, and visual identity
