France prioritizes fight against illicit trafficking in cultural goods during Presidency of EU Council

On 1 February 2022, with the participation of UNESCO, France organized the "Conference for the reinforcement of European cooperation against illicit trafficking in cultural property" at the Louvre Museum. The event was part of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), which has made this issue one of the priorities of its European agenda for the first half of 2022.

This commitment underlines the importance of the concerns of the Member States of the European Union to combat this scourge and intensify initiatives for better protection of movable cultural heritage originating or circulating in the EU, one of the largest destination and transit markets in the world for cultural goods.

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Ernesto Ottone R., Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO, said: "If illicit trafficking must indeed be fought at its source, we must also act on the demand side. Potential buyers must be aware of the devastating effects of this traffic. They must realize that buying a looted object means taking the risk of participating directly or indirectly in money laundering and the financing of criminal and terrorist organizations”.

The event brought together major European and international players involved in the preservation of cultural heritage to discuss three key issues: new technologies and innovative tools to combat illicit trafficking; dialogue with professionals and the regulation of the art market within the EU; and raising-awareness of this scourge among the general public, and in particular among youth. This last topic was addressed during a round table moderated by Lazare Eloundou Assomo, Director of World Heritage at UNESCO. The debates contribute to the ongoing exchange, in view of the informal Council of Ministers of Culture in Angers (7 and 8 March 2022) and the action plan on the fight against illicit trafficking developed by the European Commission in 2022.

Also, throughout February, the Louvre Museum is displaying illegally exported sculptures seized by the French Customs, in order to alert the public to the issues of endangered heritage.

UNESCO, which has a long history of cooperation with the EU, welcomes this new strong commitment by France, which unites its European partners in the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural property.

Finally, it should be noted that UNESCO and the EU are jointly organizing concrete actions to strengthen material and human resources to combat this problem, including the EU-UNESCO project to strengthen the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural property (ongoing, 2019-2022) and the International Conference of the 14 September.