Members of the trade in cultural property recognize the key role that trade has traditionally played in the dissemination of culture and in the distribution to museums and private collectors of foreign cultural property for the education and inspiration of all peoples.

They acknowledge the world wide concern over the traffic in stolen, illegally alienated, clandestinely excavated and illegally exported cultural property and accept as binding the following principles of professional practice intended to distinguish cultural property being illicitly traded from that in licit trade and they will seek to eliminate the former from their professional activities.

The International Code of Ethics for Dealers in cultural property has been  adopted by the UNESCO intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation at its Tenth Session, January 1999 and endorsed by the 30th General Conference of UNESCO, November 1999.

• Text of the International Code of Ethics for Dealers in Cultural Property
• Study on an international code of ethics for dealers in cultural property for the purpose of more effective control of illicit traffic in cultural property : EN | FR
• Feasibility of an international code of ethics for dealers in cultural property for the purpose of more effective control of illicit traffic in cultural property; a report for UNESCO by P.O'Keefe : EN | FR