Keeping Up with the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act: Proposed Cultural Property Import Restrictions from Lebanon and Mongolia and an Extension for El Salvador

By Emily G. Finch

On November 14, 1970, member states signed the UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, an effort to combat international issues related to the illicit trafficking of cultural property.^[1] To date, 147 countries have ratified or accepted the Convention. The United States implemented Article 7(b) and Article 9 of the Convention through the passage of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CCPIA) in 1983.^[2]

The CCPIA authorized import restrictions based on bilateral or multilateral agreements the President of the United States enters into with foreign states^[3], in emergencies, where there is a risk of destruction or loss to objects or sites, as designated by the President of the United States^[4], or as related to stolen cultural property, when a State Party’s has documented the property in the inventory of one of their cultural heritage institutions^[5].