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DHS annouces an import restriction
on Iraqi Cultural Property
Notice of import restriction.
U.S. and Guatemala Extend their Bilateral Agreement
The Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the United
States of America and the Government of the Republic of Guatemala
Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Archaeological
Objects and Material from the Pre-Columbian Cultures of Guatemala
has been extended, consistent with a recommendation made by the Cultural
Property Advisory Committee. This represents the continuation of cooperation
between these countries that began in 1991, when emergency U.S. import
restrictions were implemented to stem the problem of pillage of Guatemala's
Maya heritage and the illicit trafficking in such material. Links
to the Federal Register notice of the extension, the amended Article
II of the Agreement, and other information relevant to the Agreement
with Guatemala may be found on the Guatemala
Information Page of this Web site.
The Agreement with Mali is Extended for an Additional
Five Years
By means of an exchange of diplomatic notes, the governments of the
United States and the Republic of Mali have extended their bilateral
agreement for an additional term of five years, through September
19, 2012. As noted in the Federal Register notice published
on September 19, 2007, this agreement extends the import restrictions
that previously existed and applies a new restriction to material
from archaeological sites throughout Mali, including those of the
Paleolithic Era (Stone Age).
The cultural heritage of Mali continues to be in jeopardy from pillage
that is occurring at archaeological sites throughout the country.
Effective September 19, 2007 the list of restricted items includes
subcategories of stone objects from archaeological sites throughout
Mali including those dating to the Paleolithic Era (Stone Age). Newly
protected archaeological sites include, but are not limited to those
located in and near: the Tilemsi Valley; the Boucle du Baoule; the
Bura Band; Tondidarou; Teghaza; Gao; Menaka; Karkarichinkat; Iforas
Massif (Adrar des Iforas); Es-Souk; and Kidal. Please see the Mali
section of this site for further information.
To reflect the changes, the title of the bilateral agreement is amended
to read: "Agreement between the Government of the United States of
America and the Government of the Republic of Mali Concerning the
Imposition of Import Restrictions on Archaeological Material from
Mali from the Paleolithic Era (Stone Age) to approximately the Mid-Eighteenth
Century."
The MOU with Cyprus is Extended for an Additional Five Years
By means of an exchange of diplomatic notes, the governments of the
United States and the Republic of Cyprus have extended their bilateral
agreement for an additional term of five years, through July 16, 2012.
As noted in the Federal Register notice published on July 13, 2007,
this MOU continues the import restrictions on Byzantine Ecclesiastical
and Ritual Ethnological Material and on Pre-Classical and Classical
archaeological objects from the island of Cyprus.
Effective July 16, 2007, ancient coins of Cypriot types found on
the island are a subcategory of the archaeological objects that are
restricted. Like any other element of the archaeological record, Coins
are a significant and inseparable part of the archaeological record
of the island. They are especially valuable to understanding the history
of Cyprus. The very qualities that make coins so significant are lost
when they are looted. The Cypriot coins that are restricted include
those produced from the end of the 6th century B.C. to 235 A.D.
Questions and Answers
The Government of the Republic of Cyprus requested an amendment to
the Designated List of categories of objects restricted from entering
the United States to include coins because they are part of the Cypriot
archaeological record and subject to pillage and illicit trafficking.
Q. What was the response?
A. The Cultural Property Implementation Act places the authority
for the Designated List with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
in consultation with the Department of State. On July 13, 2007, DHS
published a Federal Register notice
concerning the extension of the agreement and amending the Designated
List to include certain coins from Cyprus, effective July 16, 2007.
Q. What coins are restricted from importation from the Republic of
Cyprus?
The Cypriot mints began to strike at the end of the sixth century
B.C. Coins were produced to the "Persic" standard, but the
types and legends reflect the mixture of Phoenician, Cypriot and Greek
elements present in the island's culture. Restricted are issues of
the ancient kingdoms of Amathus, Kition, Kourion, Idalion, Lapethos,
Marion, Paphos, Soli, and Salamis dating from the end of the 6th century
B.C. to 332 B.C. Denominations include obols and staters.
When Alexander the Great became the ruler of Cyprus in 332 BC, he
replaced the local coinage and system with his own and introduced
Greek weights and dominations. During the period in which Cyprus became
a province of the Ptolemies of Egypt, the Cypriot monetary system
was incorporated into the royal Ptolemaic coinage. The three main
cities of Cyprus which had the right of striking royal coinage were
Paphos, Salamis, and Kition. These issues of the Hellenistic period
(332 B.C. to c. 30 B.C.) are restricted.
Finally, the Roman coinage of the island begins with the reign of
Augustus and extends up to the reign of Severus Alexander. The portrait
of the emperor or a member of his family appears on the obverse of
nearly all coins assigned to the Cypriot corpus. The reverses frequently
referred to local cults (the statue of Zeus Salaminios) and religious
sites (the Temple of Aphrodite at Palaipaphos). It is quite probable
that the Cypriot Imperial mint was located at Nea Paphos, although
the city of Salamis is also considered as a possible second mint.
The provincial and local issues of the Roman period from c. 30 B.C.
to 235 A.D. are restricted.
Illustrations of the restricted coins are part of the Image
Database.
Q. Are Classical coins from other cities or Roman provinces restricted?
A. No.
Q. How can one help make sure that archaeological objects are traded
responsibly?
A. Documenting a collection by making an inventory is one of the
most responsible steps to take. Only buy from reputable dealers. Ask
dealers for documentation that shows the object left its country of
origin legally. When ordering from abroad, make sure that the dealer
properly labels the package as to its contents and country of origin.
Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page for specific questions
about importations.
The MOU with Peru is Extended for an Additional Five Years
By means of an exchange of diplomatic notes, the governments of the
United States and the Republic of Peru have extended their bilateral
agreement for an additional term of five years, through June 9, 2012.
As noted in the Federal Register notice published on June 6,
2007, this MOU continues the import restrictions on pre-Columbian
archaeological artifacts and Colonial ethnological materials from
all areas of Peru, associated with the original MOU that entered into
force on June 9, 1997. The MOU subsumed the emergency import restrictions
on artifacts from the archaeological region of Sipán, which
were imposed on May 7, 1990. Please see the Peru
section of this site for further information.
The Department of Homeland Security to Repatriate Over 300
Archaeological Objects Illicitly Exported from Peru
In a ceremony on June 13, 2007, in Miami, Florida, the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security will return more than 300 Peruvian archaeological
objects to the custody of Peru. The objects were seized from several
storage facilities during an investigation by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE); following the successfully prosecution of the smuggler
by the US Attorney's office in Miami, they were forfeited and made
available for repatriation.
Workshop on "Case Studies in Defending Cultural Heritage"
The Department of State sponsored a workshop in Mexico City (21-23
March 2007) that provided an opportunity for heritage professionals
in ten countries in the Americas to meet and exchange experiences
and ideas on efforts to fight looting and illicit trafficking of cultural
materials. While the U.S. import restrictions can help, the importance
of regional collaboration and solidarity in this work cannot be underestimated.
Shown above, participants hailed from Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica,
El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua,
and Panama, along with representatives from the Department of State
and the Organization of American States (OAS). During their meetings,
they enjoyed the gracious hospitality of the Mexican National Institute
of Anthropology and History (INAH), and the inspiring surroundings
of the National Museum of Anthropology in Chapultapec Park. The endorsement
of the workshop by the Organization of American States served to further
the stated objectives of its Interamerican
Committee on Culture regarding the preservation of cultural heritage.
The MOU with Bolivia is Extended for an Additional
Five Years
In December of 2006, the Government of the United States of America
and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia extended for an additional
five year period a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) protecting pre-Columbian
archaeological materials and Colonial and Republican ethnological
materials from Bolivia. This extension is consistent with a recommendation
of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee.
This MOU originally entered into force on December 4, 2001, pursuant
to a request from the Government of the Republic of Bolivia under
Article 9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention concerning the protection
of cultural property. The United States found the cultural heritage
of Bolivia to be in jeopardy from pillage and agreed to impose import
restrictions on certain categories of material. The aim is to decrease
the incentive to pillage thereby providing a measure of protection
to sites and artifacts that are important for understanding Bolivian
culture and for preserving traditional religious practices.
Pre-Columbian culture in Bolivia is considered to have attained a
high degree of technological, agricultural, and artistic achievement.
Without more scientific study, however, this culture remains poorly
understood. The archaeological sites and materials necessary to reconstruct
the early history of Bolivia continue to be vulnerable to widespread
pillage that systematically destroys this non-renewable record of
human development. Colonial and Republican period ethnological materials
also are found to be subject to pillage. Vested with symbolic and
historic meaning, these objects play an irreplaceable role in indigenous
Bolivian communities. The masks, textiles, and ecclesiastical objects
associated with religious ritual serve as marks of identity and are
testimony to the continuity of Pre-Columbian cultural elements in
contemporary Bolivia. They form an emblem of national pride in a society
that is largely indigenous.
The Department of Homeland Security promulgated a list of categories
of objects subject to the import restrictions. This list and an accompanying
image database may be found at http://exchanges.state.gov/culprop.
Restricted archaeological materials range in date from approximately
10,000 B.C. to A.D. 1532, and include objects comprising ceramics,
textiles and feather work, metals, stone, shell, human remains, bone,
wood and basketry. Restricted ethnological materials range in date
from A.D. 1533 to 1900 (Colonial and Republican Periods), and include:
1) objects of indigenous manufacture and ritual use related to the
pre-Columbian past, and may include masks, wood, musical instruments,
textiles, feather work, ceramics; and 2) objects used for rituals
and religious ceremonies including Colonial religious art, such as
paintings and sculpture, reliquaries, altars, altar objects, and liturgical
vestments.
U.S. Recovers Ancient Statue Stolen From Iraq Museum in 2003
 Left: The front of the figure
of the king, with hands clasped, and wearing a skirt of fleece.
Below: A detail of the cuneiform
inscription across the shoulders.
Images courtesy of DHS/ICE.
Standing just under a meter in height, the 4,400-year-old sculpture of
Entemena (now usually read by Sumerologists as Enmetena) is the
oldest known free-standing statue of a king of ancient Iraq. Working in
the early 20th C. under permits from the Iraq cultural authorities,
archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania and the British Museum
found the already headless statue during excavations in the temple
precinct at Ur - in southern Iraq. The figure has cuneiform inscriptions
on its shoulders and arm that identify it as "Entemena Whom the God Enlil
Loves." The text also lists the lands that the king donated for the
support of the temple where this sculpture probably stood - in Lagash
(modern Al-Hiba). Scholars think it may have been taken from Lagash to Ur
in antiquity as war booty.
This extraordinary object, which bears the Iraq Museum registration
number 5, is made of diorite, a dense, hard stone whose closest source may
have been in what is now Oman. A later king, Gudea of Lagash (c. 2050
B.C.), wrote of the rarity of the stone, and the trouble he took to import
it.
The sculpture was stolen from the Iraq Museum in 2003, along with many
other unique and important objects from that collection. It was located in
2005 and recovered in 2006 by agents of the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security. On July
25, 2006, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, Secretary for Homeland
Security Michael Chertoff, Iraqi Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki, and other
dignitaries participated in a ceremony marking the repatriation of the
statue to the Iraqi Government, at their Embassy in Washington.
Import Restrictions Imposed on Certain Archaeological and Ecclesiastical
Ethnological Materials Originating in Colombia.
On March 15, 2006, Under Secretary of State
for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes and Colombian
Minister of Culture Elvira Cuervo de Jaramillo signed a Memorandum of
Understanding concerning the imposition of import restrictions on
certain categories of pre-Columbian archaeological materials as well as
ecclesiastical ethnological materials from Colombia. The restrictions went
into effect March 17, 2006 with the publication of the Federal
Register notice.
Press
Release
The MOU with Italy is Extended for an Additional Five Years
The United States and Italy have
exchanged diplomatic notes extending the Memorandum of Understanding that
imposes US import restrictions on archaeological material representing
Pre-Classical, Classical and Imperial Roman periods of Italy. Effective
January 19, 2006, the import restrictions are extended for an additional
five year period, and Article II of the MOU is amended. The notice of this
extension is posted in the Federal Register, available through a
link in the column at the right.
The MOU with Nicaragua is Extended for an Additional Five Years
The United States and Nicaragua have
exchanged diplomatic notes extending the Memorandum of Understanding that
imposes US import restrictions on pre-Columbian archaeological materials
originating in Nicaragua.
With this action, the import restrictions are extended, and Article
II of the MOU is amended, setting forth new objectives for both
signatories for improving the protection and preservation of Nicaragua’s
cultural heritage. The notice
of this extension is posted in the Federal Register, available
through a link in the column at the right.
Cultural Property Advisory Committee Met on the MOU with Italy
The Committee met on September 8 and
9, 2005, to consider the proposal of the Assistant Secretary of State for
Educational and Cultural Affairs to extend the MOU between the US and
Italy. A public session on
September 8 drew some 40 people with particular interest in the matter
before the Committee, 15 of whom presented their perspectives orally.
The MOU with El Salvador is Extended for an Additional Five Years
The United States and El Salvador
have exchanged diplomatic notes extending a Memorandum of Understanding
that imposes U.S. import restrictions on pre-Columbian archaeological
objects originating in El Salvador.
This action extends the MOU for an additional five years and amends
Article II, which sets forth new benchmarks for both signatories for
achieving improvements in the protection and preservation of El Salvador’s
cultural heritage. The
amended agreement was signed by U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Ambassador
H. Douglas Barclay and Salvadoran Foreign Minister Francisco
Lainez.
Cultural Property Advisory Committee Met on China Request
The Cultural Property Advisory Committee met to consider the request
from the People's Republic of China on Thursday and Friday, February 17
and 18, 2005. On that Thursday, the Committee held an open session, which
drew some sixty people with particular interest in the China Request, 23
of whom presented testimony.
The Committee convened to continue deliberations on this Request on
31 March and 1 April, 2005.
Cultural Property Advisory Committee Met on El Salvador and
Colombia
The Committee met to review a proposal to extend the MOU between the
U.S. and El Salvador and to conclude the review of a request from Colombia
on November 18-19, 2004 at
the Department of State Annex 44.
The Government of the People's Republic of China Submits Cultural
Property Request
Concerned that its cultural heritage is in jeopardy from pillage, the
People's Republic of China has made a request to the Government of the
United States under Article 9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention to impose
import restrictions on certain categories of archaeological material. For
more information, see the Federal
Register notice.
Cultural Property Advisory Committee Met to Review Request from
Colombia
On September 9-10, 2004, the Cultural Property Advisory Committee met
to review a request from the Government of Colombia to the Government of
the United States of America. The Committee held an open session,
approximately 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon, to receive oral public comment on the
Colombia request. For further information , please see the Federal
Register announcement.
The Government of Colombia Requests Import Restrictions Under Article
9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention
The request was received from the Government of Colombia on April 21,
2004, by the United States Department of State. It seeks U.S. import
restrictions on pre-Columbian archaeological material and Colonial period
ethnological artifacts. For further information, see the Federal
Register notice. A summary of the
request is available online.
Cultural Property Advisory Committee Interim Review of U.S.-Italy
Bilateral Agreement
The Cultural Property Advisory Committee met on Thursday, May 6, 2004
from 9:00 AM-4:00 PM in the U.S. State Department Annex 44, 301 4th
Street, SW, Washington, DC. The focus of the meeting was on Article II of
the Agreement
between the Government of the United States of America and the Government
of the Republic of Italy Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions
on Certain Categories of Archaeological Material Representing the
Pre-Classical and Imperial Roman Periods of Italy.
For more information, see the Federal
Register
notice.
Honduras Image Collection Now Online
Illustrations of types of artifacts subject to import restriction under
the U.S.-Honduras Memorandum of Understanding may be consulted here.
U.S. and Honduras Sign Memorandum of Understanding
On March 12, 2004, U.S. Ambassador Larry L. Palmer and Honduran
Minister of Foreign Affairs Leonidas Rosa Bautista signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) concerning the imposition of import restrictions
on Pre-Columbian archaeological materials from Honduras. The restrictions
went into effect March 16, 2004 with the publication of the Federal
Register notice.
Press
Release
Page last updated on April 30, 2008
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Upcoming
Meeting of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee
March 6-7, 2008
Notice
of Meeting of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee on MOU
with Cambodia
Pending
Requests
China -- Public
Summary
Recent
Committee Meetings
(Held in Washington, DC,
unless otherwise noted.)
October 4-5, 2007
March 15 - 16, 2007
January 25-26, 2007
Recent Federal Register
Notices
6 June 2007
Extension
of the 2002 MOU with Peru
31 August
2006
Amendment
of the 2002 MOU with Cyprus
17 March 2006
Import
restrictions imposed on archaeological and ethnological ecclesiastical
materials originating in Colombia.
19 January 2006
Extension of
Import Restrictions Imposed on Certain Archaeological Material s
Originating in Italy
20 October 2005
Import
Restrictions Extended on Archaeological Materials Originating in
Nicaragua
June 8, 2005
Notice of
Meeting of Cultural Property Advisory Committee
March 11,
2005
Notice of Meeting of
Cultural Property Advisory Committee
December
28, 2004
Notice of Meeting
of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee
October 27,
2004
Notice
of Meeting of the Cultural Property Advisory
Committee
September 3,
2004
Notice
of Receipt of Cultural Property Request from the Government of the
People's Republic of China
August 4,
2004
Notice
of Meeting of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee
June 15,
2004
Notice
of Receipt of Cultural Property Request From the
Government of the
Republic of Colombia
April 20, 2004
Cultural Property
Advisory Committee Notice of Meeting
March 16, 2004
Import Restrictions
Imposed on Archaeological Material Originating in Honduras
December 23,
2003
Cultural
Property Advisory Committee Notice of Meeting
September 22, 2003
Import
Restrictions Imposed on Archaeological Material from Cambodia
August 29, 2003
Extension of
Emergency Import Restrictions Imposed on Ethnological Material From
Cyprus
July 15, 2003
Cultural Property
Advisory Committee Notice of Meeting
September 30, 2002
Extension of Import
Restrictions Imposed on Archaeological Material from
Guatemala
September 20, 2002
Extension of Import
Restrictions Imposed on Archaeological Material from Mali
July 19,
2002
Import
Restrictions Imposed on Pre-Classical and Classical
Archaeological
Material Originating in Cyprus
June 6, 2002
Extension of Import
Restrictions Imposed on Archaeological and
Ethnological Materials From
Peru
March 11, 2002
Notice of Proposal
to Extend the Agreement with Guatemala
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