Our Cultural Heritage

Date posted:

The Inside Job: Who is Protecting Art Museums from Themselves?

By Lily Elkwood When most people think of art theft, they imagine something out of a spy movie, a villain trying to steal a masterpiece...
Read more...
Date posted:

Cultural Property, Policy, and Politics: Safeguarding China’s Antiquities through Bilateral Agreements

By Roxana Wang Chinese cultural property has a history of being vulnerable to illicit trafficking. The scattering of invaluable Chinese artifacts during the “century of...
Read more...
Date posted:

Preserving Spain’s Cultural Heritage: Challenges and Solutions

By José Luis Ballesta Pérez Introduction From the inception of human settlements to the epochs of the Celts and Iberians, the advent of the Roman...
Read more...
Date posted:

Repatriation of the Benin Bronzes: an Ethical and Legal Discussion?

By Alec Lesseliers Introduction The British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum are a few of the world’s most famous...
Read more...
Date posted:

Safeguarding Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expression Through Intellectual Property Systems

By Murphy Yanbing Chen Introduction Traditional Knowledge ("TK") and Traditional Cultural Expression ("TCE") bear a record of the collective memories of indigenous people. They are...
Read more...
Date posted:

Technological Advancements and the Parthenon Marbles: the Potential Role of 3D Printing in the Greek Claim Against the British Museum

By Ilaria Bortot The Parthenon was built in the 5th century on the hill of the Acropolis in Athens in honor of the goddess Athena...
Read more...
Date posted:

The Colonization of Native American Trademarks and Designs: the past, present, and (potentially decolonized) future

By Tyler Heneghan Native American tribes, artists, designers, and spiritual healers have long been associated with the production of high-quality, unique, and effective designs, arts,...
Read more...
Date posted:

“Transfers of Good Faith”: Two Years Post-Sarr Savoy Report and European Repatriation of Colonial Artifacts

By Kelley Tackett.  On December 17, 2020, French legislators passed an unprecedented bill pertaining to the permanent return of objects violently looted from Benin during...
Read more...
Date posted:

Smart New Solutions for Protecting Antiquities

By Kelley Tackett It may or may not come as a surprise that the months of COVID-19 lockdown have brought an increase in the number...
Read more...
Date posted:

Social Media: A Smuggler’s Tool For Looted Antiquities

By Lucy Siegel. Social media allows us to connect in a matter of seconds with people all over the world, ranging from fan pages discussing...
Read more...
Date posted:

An Excursion into the Antiquities’ Law of India

By Atreya Mathur India’s rich cultural legacy is embodied in artworks throughout the country. Whether it is a bronze statue of a goddess, an engraved...
Read more...
Date posted:

Update: Repatriation of Cambodian Art

In the latest development in the Cambodian government’s effort to seize a thousand-year-old, five-hundred-pound sculpture from Sotheby’s, where it has been consigned by its owner...
Read more...