Collectors Fear That DOS Will Support China and UNESCO

Collectors, Museums and the Antiquities Trade have opposed the imposition of import restrictions on cultural property, putting them into direct contention with archaeologists on the Cultural Property Advisory Committee.

(PRWEB) September 20, 2006 -- In February of 2005, the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, an element of the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, began deliberations on a request for import restrictions by the People's Republic of China. What the Chinese government seeks, under a 1983 U.S. law known as the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA), is that broad categories of objects manufactured in China prior to 1911 be restricted from importation into the U.S. ostensibly to preserve the cultural heritage of China.

The range of objects considered "cultural property" under the UNESCO treaty of 1970, upon which CPIA is based, can be interpreted to include virtually everything made by man more than 100 years ago—especially in the fields of art, literature, craft and religion. The request even includes such seemingly innocuous items as Chinese coins, made in the billions and always intended to be exchanged internationally. Indeed, huge caches of old Chinese coins are found today in many neighboring countries of China and even in the United States, where immigrant laborers brought them in large numbers during the 19th century.

According to Forbes magazine (Flannery, Russell. "Reverse Migration", 22 December 2003.), the Bank of China is partnered with a nouveau riche entrepreneur by the name of Wang Gang who provides the state owned banks with packaged groups of old coins from his massive personal accumulations. These coin packs are sold by the banks to tourists at prices ranging up to $50 a set or more. If the State Department approves the Chinese request for import restrictions, as many insiders fear they are about to do, U.S. Customs will be tasked with confiscating these coins from tourists as they return to the U.S. and repatriating the coins to China -- where they conceivably could be resold to the next wave of tourists.

One reason this request hasn't already been approved is because of intense and ongoing resistance by collector and trade advocacy groups. These groups argue that State Department approval would open Pandora's Box and could be applied to all sorts of normally legitimate items that enhance bi-cultural understanding and appreciation. The issue calls into question the original intent of CPIA and the way it should be enforced. Opponents believe that the safeguards against indiscriminate requests built into CPIA in 1983 are being ignored, particularly in light of the huge internal and world market for the same objects that U.S. restrictions would apply to.

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