The Impact of the Criminal Law and Money Laundering Measures Upon the Illicit Trade in Art and Antiquities‪.‬

INTRODUCTION A cursory glance at the pages of any daily newspaper will reveal that the theft of works of art and antiquities from private museums and collections is a serious problem. It is estimated that the international trade in looted stolen or smuggled cultural property is worth several billion US dollars per year. (1) One needs to look no further than the theft in 2010 of five irreplaceable paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani and Leger from the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris in May 2010. (2) The disappearance of these prized objects is a source of distress, not only because those who visit the museum are now deprived of the pleasure of viewing them, but also because of fears that the objects might be damaged in the process of theft, as where a painting is cut from its frame, or that it may subsequently be stored in poor conditions. A further cause for concern arises when objects of antiquity, which have not yet been discovered and identified, are dug out of the ground or forcibly removed from an ancient monument. In certain respects this is worse, because their removal not only robs a vulnerable country of information about its history but may partially strip the cultural object itself of its identity. Information relating to the depth at which an object is buried (stratification), might well have indicated its age, for example. (3) Furthermore, looters are usually looking for objects which can easily be sold and have no respect for the historical record. Consequently, other artefacts are often damaged or destroyed in the process of excavating particular objects which are seen as attractive and desirable. The result is that the site and the objects which have been taken lose much of their significance.