Digging In: The Latest from Antiquities Coalition
Quarterly Highlights
The first half of 2024 saw the AC actively supporting training for law enforcement and engaging in high-level dialogues seeking collaborative solutions.
New case studies from this quarter show that weak regulations remain a critical threat to fair trade and national security. Learn more below, and check out our other efforts from this quarter including raising awareness to anti-corruption experts, joining popular podcasts, and celebrating the U.S. strengthening border security with two new Cultural Property Agreements to intercept stolen antiquities from India and Ukraine.
Spotlight
🇺🇦 🇮🇳 United States Strengthens Border Security to Intercept Stolen Ukrainian and Indian Cultural Treasures
On July 26, 2024, the U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti and Govind Mohan, Secretary, Indian Ministry of Culture, signed a Cultural Property Agreement, committing both countries to combating the illicit trade in cultural property. This agreement closes U.S. borders to undocumented objects from India that may have been illegally obtained or exported, ensuring that they will not cross U.S. borders. The CPA also directly fulfills President Biden’s and Prime Minister Modi’s commitment to enhance cooperation to protect cultural heritage, announced in their joint statement last year.
Later this quarter, on September 10, 2024, the U.S. government announced that it is imposing emergency import restrictions on at-risk art and antiquities from Ukraine, in a major victory for both the country’s cultural heritage and its people. These new regulations require additional documentation to demonstrate certain cultural objects were legally exported from the country, following growing evidence of a rampant illicit trade by Russian forces and collaborators.
In achieving cultural property agreements and implementing emergency import restrictions, the U.S. government is providing an important tool to law enforcement to fight the illicit trade of antiquities while imposing little burden on legitimate importers, protecting heritage and responsible American collectors.
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👁️🗨️ AC Hosts Training for Members of the UNCAC Coalition on Corruption
In recent years, a series of “smoking guns” has exposed how closely cultural racketeering is linked to corruption, defined by the UN as “the abuse of power for private gain.” Indeed cultural racketeering would not be possible without corruption. Criminals rely on corruption to loot protected sites and rob collections, to smuggle illicit art and antiquities across borders, to launder stolen works and forgeries onto the legitimate market, to defraud good-faith collectors, dealers, and even museums, to evade taxes, sanctions, and justice, and to hide the proceeds of their crimes through money laundering, shell companies, and offshore jurisdictions. And, far too often, to invest these proceeds into other criminal enterprises, armed conflicts, and even terrorism.
This quarter, the AC convened a team of world leaders in criminology, security, and defense studies for a training on Cultural Racketeering and Corruption for members of the UNCAC Coalition, a group which unites members from 140 countries and facilitates the implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) to combat corruption around the globe. Since joining the UNCAC Coalition in 2023, the Antiquities Coalition made significant progress in adding crime involving art and antiquities to the agenda of UNCAC.
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🖼️ Art and Antiquities Again Used to Threaten U.S. Economic Integrity and National Security
On September 5, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed two criminal indictments charging dual U.S.-Russian citizens with multiple felonies for using art, antiques, and other methods to violate sanctions imposed after the 2022 illegal invasion of Ukraine—a scheme that also allowed the married couple to launder at least $1 million through the U.S. financial system. Dimitri and Anastasia Simes allegedly provided services to and received substantial benefits from sanctioned Russian individuals and entities, including Channel One Russia, the state-controlled television network, and oligarch Aleksandr Udodov. Anastasia, specifically, is charged with committing these crimes for Udodov through the purchase of art and antiques from over 30 dealers and galleries in both the United States and Europe, exploiting the global art market’s lack of regulation and transparency.
“We commend the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture Task Force for its work on this case,” said Deborah Lehr, Chairman and Founder of the Antiquities Coalition. “The US art market remains a means for evading US sanctions and it is time for the Congress to close this loophole.”
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In Case You Missed It
🎙️ AC Leaders Featured in New Podcasts on Anti-Money Laundering Tools
Antiquities Coalition Chair and Founder Deborah Lehr and Executive Director Tess Davis were featured on the The AML Conversations podcast, hosted by John Byrne, a co-Chair of the AC’s Financial Crimes Task Force. The AML Conversations podcast aims to inform professionals and those interested in anti-money laundering (AML) about conversations happening in the government, private sector, and internationally.
Executive Director Tess Davis also joined the hosts of the Whale Hunting podcast, to critically examine how poor regulations in the global art market facilitates terrorist-financing and threatens lives. Revisit Project Brazen’s first podcast featuring Tess Davis as an expert in the Dynamite Doug podcast.
🌏 AC Supports Publication on Cultural Heritage Legislation in Central Asia
The AC was proud to support the research and writing of the new open-access publication “Preserving the Silk Road: Cultural Heritage Legislation in 5 Central Asian Countries” this quarter by James K. Reap, Ryan Rowberry, and Andrew Gamble. The publication provides insights to support research on the heritage legal frameworks of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Findings will support future policy work to strengthen heritage protections across Central Asia.
Features from Around the World
🇶🇦 AC Joins Other Experts in Qatar to Explore Solutions for Strengthening Legal Frameworks
The Antiquities Coalition was grateful to participate in The Third Doha Workshop to Combat Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Heritage: Strengthening the Legislative and Legal Framework and Building Institutional Capacities, hosted by the Qatar National Library (QNL), the US, Italian, and French Embassies in Doha. Executive Director Tess Davis and Director of Programs Helena Arose joined distinguished speakers over the course of one week, and presented on different aspects of the legal framework to fight cultural racketeering. Check out our twitter thread on key takeaways.
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