On December 12, 2016, Board member Sam Brown chaired the panel titled, “Fulbright Scholar Alumni Network – Developing a Call to Action for Fulbright Scholar Alumni to Become More Involved in Global Sustainability and Technology Deployment” as part of Club de Madrid-P80 Group Foundation’s Global Solutions Institute Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas.  
 
Panelists included Willy Foote, Senator J. William Fulbright’s grandson and CEO of Root Capital; Honorable  Ca Tran, Fulbright alumnus and Science and Technology Advisor for Vietnam; Robert Schiffer, Fulbright University, Vietnam; Dam Bich Thu, Fulbright alumna and President Fulbright University, Vietnam; Dr. Nickolas Zaller, Fulbright alumnus and Director, Office of Global Health University of Arkansas for Medical Science; and Mark Grobmyer, Managing Director, P80 Group Foundation.   

In response to the conflict in Mali in 2012, and in order to fight the looting of West African cultural heritage, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) have published a Red List of West African Cultural Objects at Risk, including a Mali "Emergency" section funded by ECA’s Cultural Heritage Center. The Red List highlights the types of artifacts that are in demand on the art and antiquities market, protected by legislation, and vulnerable to being looted, stolen or illegally exported. This tool will be transmitted to police and customs officials worldwide through INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization. It will also be distributed to museums, auction houses and art dealers. 

The Red List of West African Cultural Objects at Risk is one example of how the United States is implementing our cultural property agreement with the Republic of Mali, first established in 1997. The agreement establishes U.S. import restrictions on archaeological objects from Mali and supports the Government of Mali’s efforts to preserve its unique heritage. The Red List’s Mali “Emergency” section highlights some of the categories of objects subject to U.S. import restriction, such as terracotta statues, jewelry, and ceramic vessels.

The State Department’s support of the Red List reflects the United States’ commitment to cultural preservation and respect for world heritage.  In addition to the West Africa Red List, the Cultural Heritage Center has supported the publication of lists for SyriaIraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Egypt, Cambodia, China, Central America and Mexico, Haiti, Colombia, and Peru, with more on the way.

For more information, please contact ECA-Press@state.gov. For information on ICOM, its action against illicit traffic in cultural goods and its Red Lists of cultural objects at risk, please contact icom.presse@icom.museum.

Former Congressman Benjamin A. Gilman from New York passed away on December 17, 2016. His legacy lives on.
 
In 2000, two years before he left Congress, Benjamin A. Gilman worked with his colleagues to establish the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. This program has since provided over 19,000 scholarships to U.S. undergraduate students who receive Federal Pell grants. 
 
The Gilman program has been a study abroad success story. African Americans participate in Gilman at three and a half times the national rate for study abroad overall, Hispanics at two and half times, and Asian Americans at double the rate. Reflecting the program’s encouragement of non-traditional study abroad destinations, 71 percent of Gilman Scholars study abroad outside of Western Europe, with China the most popular destination.
 
The number of students who have been able to take advantage of this unique opportunity has increased from 300 in the first year to over 2,900 in the 2016-2017 academic year. The private sector also recognizes the value of the Gilman Program, which has led to State Department public-private partnerships with organizations like Airbnb and the Shawn Carter Foundation over the past three years. 
 
Benjamin A. Gilman’s contribution to the study abroad field continues to help many students develop the ability to communicate and understand the economic, social and political connections among nations. As he once stated: "Study abroad is a special experience for every student who participates. Living and learning in a vastly different environment of another nation not only exposes our students to alternate views, but also adds an enriching social and cultural experience. It also provides our students with the opportunity to return home with a deeper understanding of their place in the world, encouraging them to be a contributor, rather than a spectator in the international community."

https://share.america.gov/stolen-egyptian-treasures-are-homeward-bound/

With its rich cultural history stretching back to the time of the pharaohs, Egypt has long been an inviting target for looters. But thanks to a groundbreaking agreement, some stolen antiquities are being returned.

On December 1, a collection of stolen treasures — priceless artifacts that had been plundered from royal tombs to be sold on the black market — began the journey home. The treasures were handed over to Egyptian officials at a Washington ceremony a day after the signing of a U.S.-Egypt cultural property agreement at the U.S. State Department.

Known as a memorandum of understanding (MOU), the agreement is the first such between the U.S. and an Arab nation, signaling close U.S.-Egyptian cooperation on the seizure and repatriation of Egypt’s illegally exported cultural property.

The U.S. now has MOUs with 16 countries to restrict the import of their stolen cultural property into the United States, and officials hope that similar agreements with other Arab nations will follow.

A child’s wooden sarcophagus, a carved wooden sarcophagus panel, a painted linen mummy shroud, a gilded mummy mask and a mummy hand, all dating from the 8th century B.C.E., are being returned to Egypt.

The artifacts were recovered thanks to two investigations: Operation Mummy’s Curse, carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in New York, and Operation Mummy’s Hand, conducted by the group’s agents in Los Angeles. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a member of the Cultural Antiquities Task Force.

Under U.S. customs law, the agents have authority to seize stolen cultural property that has been illegally brought into the United States. During 2016, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has returned hundreds of objects to their countries of origin.

Yasser Reda, Egypt’s ambassador to the U.S., issued a statement praising the agents who recovered his country’s treasures. “The tireless work of these men and women may often go unseen,” Reda said. “But it is nothing short of vital for the preservation of ancient cultures from around the world.”

 

About the Cultural Antiquities Task Force

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a member of the Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF). Created by the State Department in 2004 at the direction of Congress, the CATF comprises federal agencies that share a common mission to combat antiquities trafficking in the United States and abroad. Since its creation, the CATF has supported more than 95 domestic and international cultural property training programs. CATF is managed by the State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center.

In the context of ongoing destruction and looting of cultural heritage in the Middle East, an event titled “Conflict Antiquities: Forging a Public/Private Response to Save the Endangered Patrimony of Iraq and Syria” was held by the U.S. Department of State and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on September 29, 2015 amid the United Nations General Assembly week.

The pioneering symposium brought together senior State Department officials, national and international law enforcement, museums, auction houses, dealers, and collectors to review international cooperation against the looting and trafficking of antiquities from the conflict in Iraq and Syria. Over the course of two panel discussions, participants:

U.S. government representatives provided new evidence that ISIL is looting for profit and discussed a new initiative to combat the trade in conflict antiquities.

  • highlighted the connection between ISIL’s looting and trafficking of antiquities and the financing of its terrorist operations;
  • emphasized the importance of effective international law enforcement action to curb the activities of traffickers, and unscrupulous dealers and collectors;
  • identified practical ways to share information and documentation on the looting and destruction of Iraqi and Syrian archeological and historical sites;
  • and explored ways to forge public-private education and advocacy campaigns about best practices for museums, collectors, and auction houses around the world.

Conflict Antiquities Panel Videos


Press/Fact Sheets

Remarks

Presentations

Learn more about the U.S. Department of State's Cultural Heritage Center.

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This multi-tiered project was developed by ECA's Cultural Heritage Center in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. Project activities included infrastructure upgrades to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad through refurbishment of the museum’s roof, 11 exhibition halls, 9 conservation labs, 3 floors of collections storage facilities, and installation of a new environmental control system. Other project outcomes included establishment of the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil, and increased professional capacity in Iraq’s heritage and museum communities through:

  • A training program for Iraqi professionals in preservation of buildings and sites, collections care and conservation, and museum education and management, conducted at the Field Museum of Natural History;
  • The bilingual publication of reports on past excavations by Iraqi archaeologists, in collaboration with The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq; and,
  • The provision of paper and electronic publications to museum libraries in Baghdad and Mosul, coordinated by Stony Brook University in collaboration with the Iraq National Museum.

The ICHP was funded by the Embassy through a $12.9 million grant awarded to the NGO International Relief and Development. Project partners included the Iraq Ministry of Culture and State Board of Antiquities and Heritage; Kurdistan Regional Government; University of Delaware Art Conservation Department; Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library; Walters Art Museum; Field Museum of Natural History; U.S. National Park Service; Stony Brook University; and the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq.

Related: 

Learn more about the U.S. Department of State's Cultural Heritage Center.

 

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