Comment by Carolyn Mitchell
In late 2021, the largest leak of offshore information exposed the secret financial affairs of some of the richest people in the world. Journalists titled the leak the “Pandora Papers.” The papers exposed the types of luxury items that the rich purchase as a tool to hide their wealth, including illicit cultural objects like looted Cambodian antiquities. Art and antiquities are frequently used as modes of financial investment or, in the criminal alternative, money laundering. The Pandora Papers exposed just one piece of the omnipresent looting, trafficking, and racketeering that occur across the world to satisfy the appetite for priceless antiquities. Despite the illegality that often comes with these priceless objects, lawmakers rarely make the protection of cultural property a priority. Often, the protection of cultural property is only taken seriously when cultural objects are directly and publicly tied to illegal acts like money laundering, terrorism financing, or the destruction of high-profile cultural landmarks. The media attention that follows these illegal acts reinvigorates calls for serious efforts to protect cultural property and historic places.
This Comment addresses how the United States can harness the current societal momentum to improve national and international protections for cultural property. Part II addresses the evolution of international cultural property law and how it has followed societal movements. Part III details the current laws in the United States for protecting cultural property. Part IV looks at how those laws have not kept pace with the legal protections in other large art markets. Part V outlines the modern problems facing cultural property today and recommends several ways the United States can update its current framework to address these issues. Part VI concludes with a path forward.
About the Author
Carolyn Mitchell. Thank you to the members of the Tulane Law Review who made this Comment possible.
Citation
97 Tul. L. Rev. Online 1 (2023)