Cultural Heritage Criminality
Purpose:
The purpose of the paper is to explore the existence of cultural heritage criminality in the world and determine whether it is rising or declining. With the guided, in-depth interviews with experts in this field, we attempted to develop guidelines for fighting such criminality.
Design/Methods/Approach:
The paper is based on literature review and on in-depth interviews with experts on cultural heritage.
Findings:
The current legislation, pertaining to the protection of cultural heritage and the fight against cultural heritage criminality is adequate. However, the implementation of such legislation and resulting sanctions is problematic. The process of obtaining and selling an object of cultural heritage is very well organised. Local predators loot archaeological sites and sell the objects to local antiquities dealers, who then organise the way of the cultural assets on the international market. When the object reaches the country of destination, its origin has already been vanished and it can be anonymously sold to the highest bidder. The analysis of the interviews additionally reveals the extent of the issue of illicit trafficking of cultural heritage. Collectors and certain museums create demand in the international illegal market for objects from a certain culture or period in history. As a result, they start the circle of organised looting and smuggling to finally acquisition of the cultural items.
Research Limitations / Implications:
Article is a pilot study with limited number of interviews with experts on cultural heritage. The paper is good steppingstone for the further research on cultural heritage criminality and it is a good source for designing the strategies for cultural heritage criminality prevention.
Originality/Value:
The Slovenian literature dedicated to the cultural heritage criminality remains barely sufficient. This paper provides the insight into the problem of cultural heritage criminality and poses the challenge for future research work.
UDC: 343.3/.7:719
Keywords: cultural heritage criminality, looting, illicit trafficking of cultural heritage, black market, art