[CPProt.net] China's Request forArt-Import Ban Stirs Debate

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

 China's Request for Art-Import Ban Stirs Debate
By RANDY KENNEDY 

Published: April 1, 2005


As art dealers and collectors are descending on New York for the auctions,
shows and lavish parties surrounding Asia Week, the attention of many is
focused elsewhere - on Washington, where the Bush administration is now
considering restrictions on the importation of Chinese art and antiquities
that could have serious implications for American museums and auction
houses.

Chinese officials have asked the State Department to impose the
restrictions, on a wide range of artifacts from the prehistoric period
through the early 20th century, because they believe that demand in the
United States for Chinese antiquities has helped fuel a sharp increase in
looting of archaeological sites and even thefts from museums over the last
several years.

Currently, United States Customs officials can reject the importation of
items from China that are suspected of having been stolen or looted, but in
practice relatively few items are seized. Under the proposed restrictions,
which would most likely be made as part of a bilateral treaty, many artworks
and artifacts could be prevented from entering unless they were specifically
approved for export by the Chinese government.

The request has sparked an impassioned debate in the Asian-art world, in
which many prominent archaeologists, preservationists and scholars have
lined up to support the Chinese government, while many antiquities dealers
and museum officials argue that the changes would be unfair, ineffective in
stopping looting and devastating for the art market and for museums. 

Opponents of the restrictions say that the United States represents only one
part of a thriving international market for Chinese artifacts, including
growing demand among wealthy collectors in China itself. And they contend
that China has not done enough within its own borders to protect its
cultural patrimony - a key requirement under a 1983 United States
art-importation law that offers help to countries that can show they are
working to protect their cultural heritage in keeping with a 1970 United
Nations agreement. 

"The statutory requirements have not been met - it's as simple as that,"
said Ashton Hawkins, a former lawyer for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
now president of the American Council for Cultural Policy, a New York-based
group of museum officials and prominent art collectors. "Until they are,
this remedy should not be offered to China."

But supporters of stricter laws argue that China has made great strides in
recent years in protecting archaeological and other cultural sites and in
prosecuting pillagers, many of whom sell antiquities to smugglers for a tiny
fraction of the price the items eventually fetch at foreign auctions. The
supporters acknowledge that the United States is only one player in the
world market, but they contend that it would set a powerful example by
helping China stem the flow of plundered artifacts.

"The U.S. is a major market for the purchase of these antiquities that have
been illegally dug up and illegally exported from China, and the United
States ought to be leading the way on this," said Robert E. Murowchick,
director of the International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural
History at Boston University. "Once a site is gone, it's gone forever. You
can't put it back together."

The looting of thousands of antiquities from Iraq since the American
invasion in 2003 has heightened international concern about the threats to
many countries' cultural treasures. Over the last few years, the trade in
plundered Chinese artifacts has also drawn more attention in the United
States because of several high-profile cases, including one in 2000 in which
customs officials seized a 10th-century marble relief panel they said had
been chiseled from an ancient tomb in northeastern China and was scheduled
be sold at Christie's.

Opponents of the changes argue that the United States may make up only 4
percent of international auction sales of Chinese antiquities, but some
dealers say that a much larger percentage of such items sold around the
world end up in the United States, a contention echoed in an interview
yesterday with an official in China's State Administration of Cultural
Heritage, which works to protect antiquities. "The U.S. is a big part of
this market," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/arts/design/01lega.html