A guide to the export and import of cultural goods between Russia ...

secular monument or similar institution, the States Parties shall prohibit their import, and
shall, under certain conditions and formalities, undertake to recover and return any such
property imported to their territory.
The importance of co-operation between States in the fight against illicit traffic is
stressed in the Convention. The text includes a requirement to ensure the co-operation
of competent services in facilitating the earliest possible restitution of illicitly exported
cultural property to its rightful owner, to approve actions for the recovery of lost or stolen
items of cultural property, brought by or on behalf of the rightful owners, and to facilitate
the recovery of non-exportable property by the State concerned, in cases where it has
been exported.
Since Russia and many EU Member States are parties to this Convention, this implies
among other things that they have mutual obligations in terms of avoiding and combating
illegal imports of cultural property to their territories, with the specific provisions foreseen
in the Convention for this purpose.
The UNIDROIT Convention of 1995
UNIDROIT, the International Institute for the Unifi cation of Private Law, has also made
an important contribution. While the UNESCO Convention covers both the prevention
of illicit traffi c and the recovery phase, the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally
Exported Cultural Objects (Rome, 24 June 1995), adopted 25 years later, focuses only
on the recovery phase. It applies to claims of an international character for the restitution
of stolen cultural objects and the return of illegally exported cultural objects. It
shares the same defi nition of cultural property as the UNESCO Convention. In fact,
the aim of the UNIDROIT Convention would be to complement the former with more
detailed and effective rules for the recovery phase. This Convention has been signed
but not yet ratifi ed by Russia, and only a number of EU Member States are parties to it.
Therefore its current signifi cance in Russia – EU exports and imports of cultural goods
is only in its potential for the future.
For stolen cultural objects, the Convention establishes a general obligation for their possessors
to return them. However, claims for restitution are subject to time limitations (with
longer terms possible for objects forming part of an identified monument or archaeological
site, or belonging to a public collection). As in the UNESCO Convention, possessors
in good faith are entitled, at the time of restitution of the object, to payment of fair and
reasonable compensation.
When cultural objects have been illegally exported (that is, not stolen, but taken
out of the country in violation of the national legislation on the protection of cultural
heritage), as a general rule a Contracting State may make a request for return to
the court or other competent authority of another Contracting State. Such requests
are subject to a time limitation, and good faith possessors are entitled, at the time
of return of the object, to payment by the requesting State of fair and reasonable
compensation.
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