Activities of Virginie ROZIÈRE related to 2017/2023(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on cross-border restitution claims of works of art and cultural goods looted in armed conflicts and wars PDF (385 KB) DOC (64 KB)
Amendments (21)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation –1 (new)
Citation –1 (new)
-1 having regard to the 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict and its second protocol of March 1999,
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation –1 a (new)
Citation –1 a (new)
-1 a having regard to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property,
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation –1 b (new)
Citation –1 b (new)
-1 b having regard to the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects,
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 a (new)
Citation 1 a (new)
- having regard to the Commission Action Plan for strengthening the fight against terrorist financing that was presented in December 2016 and its proposition of regulation on the import of cultural goods (2017/0158 (COD),
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital –A (new)
Recital –A (new)
-A. whereas, according to Interpol, the black market in works of art is becoming as lucrative as those for drugs, weapons and counterfeit goods;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital –A a (new)
Recital –A a (new)
-A a. whereas, according to the Impact assessment of the Commission proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the import of cultural goods (COM(2017)375), 80 to 90% of global antiquities sales are of goods with illicit origin;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas looting of works of art and other cultural goods during armed conflicts remains a widespread problem with important legal implicationand wars, as well as in times of peace, is a major common concern that needs to be addressed both in terms of prevention and restitution in order to protect and ensure the integrity of the heritage and identity of societies, communities, groups and individuals;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas, in recent years, a string of crimes against world cultural heritage have been perpetrated by warring factions and terrorist entities all over the world and valuable artworks, sculptures and archaeological artefacts are being sold and imported into the EU from certain non-EU countries, with the profits therefrom potentially being used to finance terrorist activities;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the Vilnius Forum and the Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues have all emphasised the importance of providing restitution for individual immovable property; whereas the number of artworks that have been restituted since the Washington Conference is perhapsestimated to fall between 1 000 toand 2 0008 ; whereas there is no complete list of artworks restituted in recent years; _________________ 8 According to the Claims Conference- WJRO Looted Art and Cultural Property Initiative.
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas artworks are still missing and are waiting to be returned to their rightful owners or to their heirs; whereas at the Washington Conference in 1998 Jonathan Petropoulos made an estimate that perhapsaround 650 000 artworks had been stolen throughout Europe, and Ronald Lauder stated that 11 000 pieces of art worth between USD 10 and 30 billion dollars at the time (1998) were still missing; whereas the Claims Conference- WJRO generally responds that there are no accurate estimates: approximately 650 000 artworks were stolen, of which perhaps 100 000 remain missing;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas litigants continue to encounter legal problems owing, on the one hand, to the often very specific nature of their claims and, on the onether hand and, to the expiration of post- war restitution laws, the non-retroactivity of conventional norms, statute of limitations provisions on claims or the provisions on adverse possession and good faith on the other;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that insufficient attention has been paid at EU level to the restitution of works of art and cultural goods looted in armed conflicts, in particular in the fields of private law, private international law and civil procedure; calls on the Commission therefore to explore the possibility of protecting cross- border restitution claims of cultural assets displaced and misappropriated as a result of state-sanctioned acts of plunder and looted during armed conflicts;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that much could be gained from assessing andthe most efficient way of countering the trafficking of cultural goods and work of art, as well as of supporting their restitution, is to fostering the development of fair practices in art trade and restitution from a transnational and global perspective; underlines that provenance research and European cooperation have proved useful in the identification of looted objects, in their subsequent relocation and, in some cases, in preventing the financing of terrorist groups or wars;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes that there is a lack of coordination in the field of jurisdictional rules, which leads to forum shopping when it comes to claims for the restitution of looted art; notes that Articles 3 and 4 of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Sstolen or Iillegally Eexported Ccultural Oobjects offer a key compromise between civil law and common law jurisdictions when resolving problems concerning stolen or illegally exported cultural objects resulting from differences among national rules; urges the Commission to consider how the rules of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention can be implemented in EU and national lawthe harmonisation of the rules on provenance research and the incorporation of some basic principles of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Considers that a first step towards harmonisation concerning restitution claims of works of art and cultural goods would be the adoption of a common definition of “cultural property”, “works of art” and “cultural goods”
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Commission to promote the use ofconsider establishing a specific alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for works of art looted in armed conflicts and wars; calls on the Commission to look into practical ways to helpdealing with cases of restitution claims of looted works of art and cultural goods in order to overcome existing legal obstacles, such as a hybrid form of arbitration and mediation; stresses the importance of clear standards and transparent and neutral procedures;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls onUrges the Commission to develop common principles on access to public or private archives containing information on property identification and location and tying together existing databases of information about title to disputed propertieso carryout a mapping of existing databases in order to create a central database, to be accessed by all relevant actors, that takes account of all relevant information; such a database should be connected with INTERPOL’s "Stolen Works of Art Database" and be updated regularly;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Considers that another useful complement to the above mentioned database should be the creation, for the purposes of enabling a more thorough and accurate provenance research, of a documentary record or transaction register of cultural property; asks the Commission to adopt appropriate measures in order to encourage Member States to introduce a general obligation for art market actors to maintain such documentary records or transaction registers and, more generally, to adhere to the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on stolen or illegally cultural objects;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11 b. Considers that the central database should function on the basis of a common cataloguing system whereby objects would be identified in a standardised manner (taking into account characteristics such as materials, techniques, measurements, inscriptions, title, subject, date or period, etc.)
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to identify common principles on how ownership or title are established as well as rules on prescription and standards of proof and the concept of looting and art;establishing an agency based on Article 167 TFEU on the protection of looted art in order to advise Member States and market professional on questions related to trafficking in cultural goods and identify common principles on how ownership or title are established as well as rules on prescription and standards of proof and the concept of looting and art; This agency should also collect the results of provenance research, link existing databases, issue object IDs, set-up the meta-website mentioned above and investigate cases of trafficking of cultural property,
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Member States and candidate countries to make all necessary efforts to adopt measures to ensure the creation of mechanisms whichonsiders that, in view of a fully transparent, accountable and ethical global art market, the Commission should seek to cooperate with third countries and to establish partnerships favouring the return of the property referred to in this resolution and to be mindful that the return of artworks looted in the course of crimes against humanity to the rightful claimants is a matter of general interest underwhile taking into account both the principles set out in the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects and Article 1 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights;