On September 5, 2024, the Interagency Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee conducted its third quarterly meeting. The meeting was chaired by Scott Weinhold, Senior Bureau Official of the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which chairs the committee and serves as its secretariate.
The session opened with an update from the FBI’s Art Crime Team, reporting on the August 29, 2024, repatriation of various cultural artifacts to Vanuatu in a public ceremony at the opening of the new U.S. Embassy Port Vila in Vanuatu, attended by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Campbell. This repatriation included five culturally significant relics containing human remains which were illicitly trafficked into the United States from Vanuatu and several other countries. The FBI’s Washington Field Office’s Rapid arranged for transportation of Vanuatu’s heritage by partnering with FedEx and the U.S. Coast Guard to reach the remote, Pacific-island nation. During the ceremony, Deputy Secretary Campbell emphasized the United States' deep respect for cultural heritage and the importance of the repatriation, marking a significant moment in the ongoing efforts to return cultural treasures to their rightful homes.
The Smithsonian Institution began their portion of the meeting by delivering a brief update to the ongoing and active monitoring of damage to Ukrainian cultural heritage. The Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI) research team has conducted a series of rapid site reports, focusing on institutions such as the Museum of History and Archaeology and the Museum of Hryhorii Skovoroda. They also support HEMO (Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab) and have undertaken numerous expeditions, including 20 in Kharkiv, one in Lviv, one in Dnipro, and one in Zaporyzhzhya. Additionally, they are delivering direct aid to cultural heritage institutions in Ukraine, including shipping portable power stations to museums in need.
The Committee then discussed reports of extensive damage to regional cultural heritage impacted by ongoing conflicts, including religious sites, buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, depositories of movable cultural property, monuments, museums, and archaeological sites.
Additional updates from CHCC member agencies included Colonel Scott Dejesse from the Army Monuments Officers, who spoke about the capabilities of 38G Civil Affairs Specialists. Representatives from the Smithsonian Institution and the Department of State's Cultural Heritage Center recently met with the group at Fort Liberty, North Carolina to discuss interagency cooperation on implementing the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.
During an open discussion, Jake Archer from the FBI, chair of the TWG, announced an upcoming quarterly meeting and discussed the success and need for upgrades to the CPEOC (Cultural Property Experts on Call) program. Mentioning also the progress on the Cultural Property Artificial Intelligence image recognition tool and a remote sensing network.
The Committee then discussed reports of looting from the National Museum in Khartoum and other threats to Sudan’s cultural heritage as part of the ongoing conflict. In closing, SBO Weinhold noted the excellent participation and input from the interagency team in organizing the meeting and to expect that the Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee will reconvene in December.
