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41 Mich. J. Int'l L. 581 (2020)
Keeping the Barbarians at the Gates: The Promise of the UNESCO and UNIDROIT Conventions for Developing Countries

handle is hein.journals/mjil41 and id is 599 raw text is: KEEPING THE BARBARIANS AT THE GATES: THE PROMISE OF THE UNESCO AND UNIDROIT CONVENTIONS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Michael P. Goodyear * I. INTRODUCTION Videos of Islamic State militants brutally smashing ancient statues and carvings at ruins and museums across Iraq and Syria made headlines around the world.' But while this active, iconoclastic destruction made front-page news, another form of cultural property destruction has remained in the shadows: the illicit trade in cultural property.2 This trade removes cultural property from its country of origin to be hidden in private collections, re- moving parts of a country's history and destroying the public's ability to en- joy and benefit from that property. Although the danger of trafficking in cultural property can be quite ex- treme even in highly industrialized countries,3 the problem is more acute in developing countries that are rich in cultural property but poor economical- ly.4 With fewer resources to dedicate to patrolling the movement of cultural J.D., University of Michigan Law School (2020); A.B., University of Chicago (2016). 1 would like to express my sincere thanks to Professor Walter E. Kaegi for nurturing my interest in the study of Byzantine history and to the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, and especially Gil Stein, for introducing me to the world of cultural heritage protec- tion. Thank you also to my parents for entertaining and encouraging my interest in and pas- sion for studying history and culture, as well as their enduring support throughout my law school career. Additional thanks is due to Farshad Rahimi Dizgovin, Chloe Roddy, Annema- rie Smith-Morris, and Lindsay Bemsen Wardlaw for their invaluable suggestions and com- ments. 1. E.g., A. R. Williams, ISIS Smashes Priceless, Ancient Statues in Iraq, NAT'L GEOGRAPHIC (Feb. 27, 2015), https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/2/150227- islamic-militants-destroy-statues-mosul-iraq-video-archaeology. 2. See Benoit Faucon, Georgi Kantchev & Alistair MacDonald, The Men Who Trade ISIS Loot, WALL ST. J. (Aug. 6, 2017, 7:28 PM), https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-men-who- trade-isis-loot-1502017200. 3. See, e.g., Sue J. Park, Note, The Cultural Property Regime in Italy: An Industrial- ized Source Nation's Difficulties in Retaining and Recovering Its Antiquities, 23 U. PA. J. INT'L ECON. L. 931, 935 (1994). 4. See PERNILLE ASKERUD & ETIENNE CLtMENT, PREVENTING THE ILLICIT TRAFFIC IN CULTURAL PROPERTY: A RESOURCE HANDBOOK FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION FOR THE 1970 UNESCO CONVENTION 10, 14, 44 (1997); Brigitta Hauser-Schaublin & Sophorn Kim, Faked Biographies: The Remake of Antiquities and Their Sale on the Art Market, in CULTURAL PROPERTY AND CONTESTED OWNERSHIP: THE TRAFFICKING OF ARTEFACTS AND THE QUEST FOR RESTITUTION 108, 111 (Brigitta Hauser-Schiublin and Lyndel V. Prott eds., 581

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