Memorandum submitted by the Natural History
Museum
ILLICIT TRADE IN CULTURAL OBJECTS
The Natural History Museum is pleased to give
evidence to the Committee for its inquiry into Government policy
on illicit trade in cultural objects. Our evidence relates to
two issues being considered by the Committee: illicit trade and
human remains.
The Natural History Museum holds some 70 million
objects in its collections of botanical, mineralogical, palaeontological
and zoological material, together with a substantial library collection.
The British Museum Act (1963) defines the Museum's powers and
responsibilities with respect to its collections. The Museum provided
detailed information on its policies and position in evidence
to the Committee's earlier inquiry in 2000.
1. ILLICIT TRADE
The Natural History Museum reviews and publishes
its collections policies and procedures on a regular basisusually
every five years. The Museum's policies have for many years included
commitments to acquire objects only when proper title can be established,
and when the objects have been obtained in accordance with UK,
international or other relevant national laws. Since the Committee's
earlier inquiry, the collections policies have been revised to
include the following policy statements on acquisitions:
"Under the terms of the UNESCO
1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing
the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural
Property, which the UK ratified with effect from 1 November
2002, the Museum will reject any items that have been illicitly
traded."
"The Museum will use the National
Museum Directors' Conference Statement of Principles and Proposed
Actions on Spoliation of Works of Art during the Holocaust and
World War II period (1998) and report on them in accordance
with the guidelines".
2. HUMAN REMAINS
As a part of its wide range of research activities,
the Museum supports research on human origins and variation, and
related fields, maintaining a collection of human remains from
all parts of the world as an essential resource. The Director
of the Natural History Museum, Sir Neil Chalmers, has been a member
of the DCMS Working Group on Human Remains, which was established
in 2001 following the Culture, Media and Sport Committee's inquiry
in 2000 Cultural Property: Return and Illicit Trade.
We look forward to the release of the Working
Group report and to any Government response to the report. If
the current inquiry is still in progress at that time, the Museum
will draft further evidence in response to the report and the
response, but in the meantime would like to register its continuing
interest in the Committee's work on this issue.
July 2003
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