One widely covered news story recently has been the systematic destruction of the archeological remains of ancient temples and monuments by ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The radical Islamic group ISIL believes that these buildings and statues are all idols, and thus forbidden under their strict interpretation of Islam. As grotesque as this opinion may seem to Western observers, I fear the truth of the matter is even more terrifying. In reality, I suspect ISIL believes any artifacts from pre-Islamic societies are idolatrous and, therefore, subject to righteous desecration by the faithful.
ISIL wasn’t the first Islamic fundamentalist group to destroy priceless ancient monuments that offended their delicate religious sensibilities. The Taliban infamously dynamited Afghanistan’s massive Bamiyan Buddha statues in 2001 in spite of international diplomatic protests. Even according to the Taliban’s ridiculously strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, the demolition was religiously unwarranted, as Afghanistan had not had a Buddhist population for almost a thousand years.
The Taliban and ISIL’s continuing destruction of ancient cultural treasures strip away humanity’s rich history, one artifact at a time. Although this pointless devastation is a great tragedy, there is another, even greater danger lurking in the shadows.
In 1970, the UNESCO Convention on antiquities was passed. This agreement was the first multi-national attempt to regulate the international antiquities trade. The original intent was to give government the theoretical framework to disrupt and prosecute the illegal looting of important ancient cultural items.
Since 1970, almost every developed nation has implemented the recommendations of the 1970 UNESCO Convention in one form or another. The 1970 UNESCO Convention signatories include France, Canada, Australia and the United States, among others. However, although international antiquities law was undoubtedly founded with noble intentions, it has gradually evolved into something very different over the decades.
The 1970 UNESCO Convention and the body of international antiquities law it spawned have turned into tools of political and nationalistic control. Many nations, including Italy, Turkey and Egypt have adopted the stance that they are the sole rightful owners of any antiquities excavated from their soil.
This malignant ideology has progressed to the point that many nations have demanded the return of important ancient artifacts from foreign museums on the basis that they belong “to the motherland”. Some noteworthy antiquities have already been unconditionally repatriated due to international pressure, while others, like the British Elgin Marbles from the Greek Parthenon, still hang in legal limbo.
A few countries even claim that antiquities – sometimes even minor antiquities of minimal archeological or monetary value – are so integral to the identity of the modern nation-state that they implicitly belong to the state. Turkey, for example, improbably declares that antiquities excavated from ancient Greek cities along its Aegean coast somehow reflect the core attributes of the modern Turkish people. This is absurd in light of the fact that the Turkish state forcibly evicted its entire Greek population of about 1.2 million people at the end of the Greco-Turkish War in 1922/23.
China has also adopted a similarly inane policy stance on antiquities, asking the United States to ban the importation of any pre-1911 Chinese artifacts. The assertion is that these artifacts are the permanent property of the Chinese state, regardless of who currently owns them or where they now reside. This is obviously a jingoistic attempt by China to manipulate international antiquities law to its own political ends.
It is also somewhat laughable because 1911 was hardly more than a century ago. No item from the 18th or 19th century could even remotely be considered ancient. The farce becomes doubly ironic when one learns that countless numbers of pre-1911 Chinese Imperial-era artifacts were intentionally destroyed by the Chinese Red Guards during the country’s brutal Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976.
International antiquities law has devolved into a corrupt attempt by sleazy politicians, government technocrats and ivory-tower academics to seize total control of humanity’s shared cultural history. It encourages the worst kind of political nationalism, asserting unconditional state ownership over every tangible shred of ancient culture. In addition, if taken to its logical conclusion, this philosophy of exclusive state ownership of all antiquities would result in incredible risks to the world’s cultural heritage.
Regardless of how secure or developed a nation might seem, natural disasters, wars or civil disturbances are bound to happen eventually. Even first world countries solidly governed by the rule of law, like Great Britain, Japan, France and the United States, will one day see unexpected political or military tumult. Physically disbursing important antiquities to museums, universities and private collections all over the globe is the only way to mitigate these existential risks.
Less developed nations in geo-political hot spots are even more exposed to these destructive situations. The barbaric rampage of ISIL and the Taliban through the Middle East are prime examples of the dangers antiquities face in less developed countries. These recent experiences only reinforce the necessity of widely distributing antiquities are all over the globe.
But an enlightened approach to international antiquities law would require politicians, museum curators and archeologists to all abandon the idea of strictly controlling the world’s antiquities trade. Although I believe it is improbable in the current, politically-charged climate, I sincerely hope that reason will eventually prevail. International antiquities law needs to be reformed. It is vital to the future survival of ancient treasures of all types.
