Latest news
19 Nov 2019
An international organised crime group dismantled by Europol and Eurojust
An international police operation carried out ον 18.11.2019, supported by Eurojust and Europol, dismantled an international organised crime group involved in large-scale trafficking of Greek archaeological items looted from Calabria, Italy, resulting in 23 arrests and 103 searches and seizures, yielding approximately 10 000 archaeological goods.
19 Nov 2019
47th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention
The 16th November 2019 marked the 47th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention. This Convention protects the world’s most outstanding places. The idea of creating an international movement for protecting heritage emerged after World War I. The 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage developed from the merging of two separate movements: the first focusing on the preservation of cultural sites, and the other dealing with the conservation of nature. More under the UNESCO site
13 Nov 2019
One year after the Sarr-Savoy report
A year ago this month, authors Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy submitted their controversial report to French President Emanuel Macron. The report recommended the return of a vast number of Sub-Saharan African artefacts currently in French public museums, while suggesting a procedure for securing that return. Here we are in late 2019 and not a single item has been returned to Africa.
21 Oct 2019
Act for Heritage! - CoE Conference in Nicosia
The HSLA has kindly been invited and one of our lawyers, Ms. Eleni Dimonitsa, is very much looking forward to participate at the two-day conference on promoting the Council of Europe Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property (the Nicosia Convention) on 24-26 October 2019. The Conference is is organized by the Commissioner for Volunteerism and Non-Governmental Organisations of Cyprus, in co-operation with the MfA of Cyprus, the CoE and the EU. Thank you CoE !
20 Oct 2019
German states establish help desk to handle artefacts acquired in colonial era
The culture ministers of Germany’s 16 states and the federal government have agreed to set up a help desk to inform and advise individuals and institutions from former colonies seeking to repatriate objects looted from their territory during the colonial era.The new help desk will start work in the first quarter of next year and will be half financed by the states, half by the federal government.