Greetings! This lecture will form part of the program at the Bead Symposium to
be held as part of Bead Expo 2000 in Santa Fe, NM at the end of this month. I
thought it would be of interest considering the Antiques Roadshow program which
some of us were upset about.

Consulting Archaeologist from the US State Department presents lecture and
workshop in Santa Fe, March 24, on the international conventions protecting
cultural property.
Contact:  [log in to unmask]

"U.S. Import Restrictions Under the Convention on Cultural Property
Implementation Act," Bonnie Magness-Gardiner.

As of November 1999, 90 countries, including the U.S., had ratified the 1970
UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit
Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970 UNESCO
Convention), bringing the number of participants to over half the existing
recognized states worldwide.

In the U.S., the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act defines
the conditions under which the U.S. may take action to protect the cultural
property of other countries who are parties to the 1970 UNESCO Convention.
Essentially, a country makes a request to the U.S. for protection under
Article 9.  To date, the U.S. has entered into agreements with or taken
emergency action with regard to eight countries: Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada,
Cyprus, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mali, and Peru. With the exception of
Bolivia, all agreements are currently in force.

The imposition of import restrictions on categories of objects subject
to looting in the requesting country is one of the principle U.S.
activities under a cultural property agreement. Restricted objects may enter
the U.S. if accompanied by an export permit issued by the country of origin,
or if appropriate documentation demonstrates that they left the country of
origin prior to the date the import restriction went into effect.  More
information is available on the International Cultural Property Protection
web site (http://e.usia.gov/education/culprop).

Bonnie Magness-Gardiner is consulting archaeologist for the
Cultural Property Advisory Committee and the U.S. Department of State.  As
such, she provides research and analysis regarding archaeological matters to
the committee, including analysis of the market for antiquities in the U.S.
and abroad.  She produces the image database of objects subject to
import restrictions under the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation
Act and she manages the International Cultural Property Protection web
site (http://e.usia.gov/education/culprop).

Her interest in producing an archaeological image database was stimulated by
a two-year stint at the Library of Congress working as a program officer for
the National Digital Library Program. Prior to that she served as program
officer for archaeology projects at the National Endowment for the
Humanities and taught archaeology at Bryn Mawr College.

Contact:  Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, Consulting Archaeologist, Cultural
Property Advisory Committee, U.S. Department of State.
202-619-5323; [log in to unmask]


This lecture is presernted as part of Friday's program, "Facets of
Collecting:  Passion, Preservation and Possession."  Friday, March 24, 2000.
Bead Expo Symposium, Hotel Loretto


Suzanne Jamison
HC 68, Box 79-S
Gila Hot Springs
Silver City, NM  88061
505-536-9339, voice; 505-536-9332, fax
[log in to unmask]