Laundering Antiques of Illegal Origin: Germany’s Struggle against Ratifying the UNESCO Convention of 1970

Michael Müller-Karpe

(Germany)

After 36 years of deliberation, Germany has announced that it will ratify the UNESCO /Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970)/. However, the draft law, which the cabinet has passed and which soon will be approved by the parliament, is primarily oriented to the demands of an affluent antiquities dealers’ lobby. It perverts the goals of the convention.