On October 12, 1999, the US State Department's Cultural Property Advisory Committee met in public session on an Italian Government request for import restrictions on a wide variety of artifacts dating from the 5th millennium BC to the 5th c. AD, including ancient Greek and Roman coins. The Cultural Property Advisory Committee is composed of experts who advise the US President on the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act which implements the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. Italy made its request pursuant to the terms of the 1970 UNESCO Convention.

Approximately 45 interested parties attended this public session. This group included representatives from the collecting public, antiquities dealers, museums and archeologists.

Archeologists acted as the main proponents of import restrictions. They argued collecting ancient artifacts without a provenance encourages the pillage of archeological sites. For that reason, they support requiring importers of such artifacts to disclose the provenance of any antiquity brought into the United States. If the importer cannot demonstrate that the article was legally excavated and exported from Italy or show conclusively that it originated from some other country, they believe that US Customs should seize the item if it could have come from the Italian soil.

The collecting public and the antiquities dealers argued against the imposition of any import restrictions. Speakers espousing this view emphasized that antiquities have been avidly collected for hundreds of years. Hence, it is unreasonable to assume that all antiquities without a provenance were looted recently from Italy. Some of the speakers also attacked Italian antiquities law that dates from the Mussolini era. Under that law, all antiquities found in Italian soil are considered state property. Others questioned Italy’s own handling of its cultural wealth. These speakers charged that many of Italy’s archeological treasures are destroyed each year due to the ambivalence of the Italian authorities.

Arthur Houghton, outgoing President of the American Numismatic Society, indicated that the Committee should be wary of imposing import restrictions on common items like ancient coins. Houghton spoke as a former member of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee from 1983-1987. He indicated that when he served on the Committee, the Committee imposed import restrictions on items from El Salvador from a specific region with a unique culture. He said that by comparison the Italian request was massive and very complicated. Accordingly, the Committee should consider the request in parts and narrow its focus.

Peter Tompa, a new ANS Council member, also spoke. He indicated that ancient coins should not be restricted because they simply are not items of “significantly rare archeological stature” as required by the Cultural Property Implementation Act.

Malcolm Bell, an archeologist affiliated with the University of Virginia, took the opposite view. He first spoke about Italy’s current efforts to end pillage. He then catalogued specific instances of pillage of coins from Morgantina and Kamarina. In a short statement, R. Ross Holloway, a Brown University professor, decried any investment in ancient art lacking a provenance. He also supported Bell’s statements about coins.

Interested persons should contact the Committee to express their views. The Committee, by statute, includes representatives of various interest groups. Committee members representing museum interests include the Committee Chair, Dr. Martin E. Sullivan, the Executive Director of Historic St. Mary's City, MD., and Stephen E. Weil, Emeritus Senior Scholar, Center for Museum Studies, Smithsonian Institution. Hester A. Davis, Arkansas State Archeologist, Susan K. McIntosh of Rice University, and Prudence M. Rice of Southern Illinois University represent the interests of archeology and anthropology. Gerald Steibel represents the interests of dealers. Miguel Corzo, Richard Lanier, and Lawrence Reger represent the general public.

For a more detailed version of Peter Tompa's article, see The Celator, vol. 13, no. 12, Dec. 1999, pp. 32-33, 36.