Page 33 - Manual for Activities directed at the Underwater Cultural Heritage

collections on the other side of the world, unable to inspire new efforts.
On a national level, many
countries had started to
protect their heritage with
archaeological legislation long
before the end of colonial
times. Internationally, how-
ever, it was not unless deco-
lonisation was well under-
way that action and measures
were finally taken to terminate
the looting of archaeological
sites, to curtail trade in
antiquities acquired through
looting and to organize
hesitant restitution efforts to
countries of origin of some
of the most flagrantly stolen and smuggled items.
UNESCO has been an important platform in fighting the commercialisation and unequal trade in heritage. The organization facilitated the development of recommendations and conventions and promoted other forms of international cooperation. The laws and conventions that were developed for this purpose (see sidebar on UNESCO Conventions and illicit traffic) ensured that exploitation of sites on land was made illegal. Since then, there is a distinction between the legal antiquities market and the trade with illicitly recovered antiquities.
© Christie’s.The cargo of porcelain from the Geldermalsen sold at an auction at Christies, Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1986. The Geldermalsen was a Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship that held an ordinary cargo of Chine de Commande porcelain destined for the European
market, when it sank in the Riau Archipelago (Indonesia) in 1752. The auction of 1986 marks an important turning point in the way underwater cultural heritage is perceived and was an important catalyst for the debate on its protection.
Commercial exploitation for trade or speculation is not acceptable, because:
• Heritage shall not be traded, sold, bought or bartered as commercial goods;
• Heritage shall not be object of art theft or illicit traffic;
• Heritage shall not be commercially exploited for trade or speculation;
• Heritage shall not be irretrievably dispersed; and
• Heritage shall be kept as close to the site where it
is found as possible.
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General Principles