Armed Conflict | Cultural Property & Archaeology Law

Browsing All Posts filed under »Armed Conflict«

Assault on Cultural Heritage in Mali Continues

July 16, 2012

Armed with Kalashnikovs and axes, Islamists occupying northern Mali destroyed ancient Muslim tombs in the Malian city of Timbuktu last Tuesday. Locals watched in shock as the Al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) committed what the United States has referred to as a cultural “assault.” Last week, the militant group destroyed several sites listed […]

Two Albums Documenting Nazi Art Theft Discovered

April 3, 2012

During World War II, the Nazis recorded the cultural property and paintings they seized into catalogs. The catalogs have photographs of each confiscated item and were used for Hitler to choose which ones he wanted for his personal collection. Historians estimate there were a total of 100 catalogs. The Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation […]

ICCROM Offers Course in First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict

March 1, 2012

If you’ve got a month to spare this fall, you might want to check out ICCROM’s Rome-based course, First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Conflict, running from 24 Sept to 26 October. Some details from ICCROM: Background Armed conflicts world wide continue to involve deliberate or accidental damage to cultural heritage. Conflicts result […]

University of Waikato of New Zealand Offers ‘Art Crime during Armed Conflict’ Course

December 14, 2011

Between Monday 13th and Friday 17th February next year, Judge Arthur Tompkins, a faculty member at ARCA’s Summer Masters Certificate Program in International Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection Studies course in Amelia, Italy, will be presenting ‘Art Crime during Armed Conflict‘, as a 5-day summer course at the University of Waikato, in Hamilton, New […]

UN Director-General Says Libya’s Cultural Heritage in Danger

August 29, 2011

Following up on an earlier CPAL article, UN Implores Libya and NATO to Preserve Sites of Ghadamès and Leptis Magna, the UN this week released another statement pertaining to the danger that Libya’s cultural sites face from the current conflict. The statement explains: The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today urged the people of Libya […]

FBI Returns Antiquities Stolen During US Occupation to Iraq

July 12, 2011

Efforts made by the US government to rectify the looting and pillaging of cultural property in Iraq during the American occupation appear to be paying off. This week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) returned a collection of objects illegally imported into the United States from Iraq. The […]

Thailand Denounces the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention

June 30, 2011

At the 35th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee earlier this week, Thailand announced its intention to denounce the 1972 World Heritage Convention. Suwit Khunkitti, head of the Thai delegation to the World Heritage Committee, declared that Thailand would resign as a member country to the Convention due to the Committee’s consideration of a Cambodian […]

UN Implores Libya and NATO to Preserve Sites of Ghadamès and Leptis Magna

June 16, 2011

The United Nations has called on Libya and NATO to protect two cultural heritage sites that have come under threat in the wake of armed conflict. The Old Town of Ghadamès (also called Ghadamès Old City) was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. UNESCO explains: Ghadamès, known as ‘the pearl of the desert’, […]

10 Years Without the Bamiyan Buddhas

March 1, 2011

Ten years ago, the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan were destroyed by the Taliban while the world watched. These enormous statues had survived 1,500 years only to be blasted by dynamite. When the face on one of the buddhas stubbornly clung to the cliffside despite the blasts, the Taliban shot it off with rockets. The international […]

An Evolving Cultural Property Protection Model and the Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition

February 28, 2011

Posting has been less frequent lately but I’ve been busy doing some things that CPAL readers might find of interest. First, on Feb. 18, I gave a presentation, “The Evolution of the Cultural Property Protection Model Toward a Human Rights Framework and the Implications for Sovereignty,” at the Michigan State University College of Law Journal […]