On the Regulation of the International Exchange of Cultural Property: Does UNESCO want cultural objects to be treated solely as res extra commercium and assume away private actors and market transactions?

Groß Steffen W. ()
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Groß Steffen W.: Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Fakultät: Wirtschaft, Recht, Gesellschaft, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-SenftenbergGermany

ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 2019, vol. 70, issue 1, 166-187

Abstract: With its foundation in 1945, UNESCO declared as its main purpose the promotion of international cultural exchangeUNESCO Constitution 1945, Art. I, 2 (c). A number of legal instruments (Conventions, Recommendations and Declarations) should duly help to substantiate that general purpose and make it work in practice. In this process, the regulation of the international exchange of cultural property plays a key role. However, the proper regulation of cultural property exchange has been a highly controversial issue. This paper focus on UNESCO's guiding ideas and conceptions of cultural property, international exchange and regulation. The central question is: Are the regulations codified in UNESCO’s Conventions and Recommendations helpful in encouraging international cultural exchange or are we faced, due to the neglect of private agents and the roles they play in cultural exchange, with some sort of one-sided regulation running counter to that aim? The author argues that UNESCO's legal instruments are driven by and express a strong anti-private and anti-market bias, which produce problematic economic incentives in the art and antiquities world to the disadvantage of the international exchange of cultural property.

Keywords: Cultural Property; Cultural Institutions; UNESCO; Regulation; Kulturgüter; kulturelle Institutionen; Regulierung des Kulturgütertransfers; UNESCO (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B41 K42 Z11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1515/ordo-2020-0009

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