1. Cultural Property Advisory Committee Meeting, February 4-6, 2025 

   The Cultural Property Advisory Committee intends to meet February 4-6, 2025 (pending Federal Register announcement confirmation), to review a new request for cultural property import restrictions from Vietnam, and to review the proposed extensions of the cultural property agreements with Chile, Italy, and Morocco. The Committee invites public comment on these agenda items.  

2. Cultural Antiquities Task Force Sponsors Training for Egyptian Law Enforcement

   The Cultural Antiquities Task Force (CATF) recently supported a workshop in Cairo jointly organized by the U.S. Embassy and the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on protecting cultural property and investigating cases of illegally exported antiquities.

3. United States and Italy Mark Fifteenth Anniversary of Memorandum to Protect Italian Cultural Heritage

   On January 19, 2016 the Governments of the United States and the Italian Republic extended for the third time.

4. Cultural Antiquities Task Force Sponsors Workshops for Peruvian National Police, Government and Cultural Officials

   Law enforcement and cultural heritage experts from across the U.S. government recently partnered in Lima for a series of workshops that trained more than 70 representatives from the Peruvian National Police, government, cultural entities, and church archdioceses on enforcing cultural heritage law.  

5. Law Enforcement Receive Advanced Training to Counter Threats to Cultural Heritage

   Cultural property, art, and antiquities are vulnerable to looting, theft, and trafficking by criminal and terrorist groups around the world.

6. Russia’s Threat to Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage Affects Us All

   The United States stands with Ukraine in its valiant efforts to protect its cultural heritage in the face of Russia’s horrific attacks causing loss of life and damage to property. The destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage is an attack on the identity of the people of Ukraine. Moreover, any intentional attacks on cultural property may violate the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

7. Interagency Training Builds Capacity to Protect Cultural Heritage

   Cultural property, art, and antiquities around the world are vulnerable to looting, theft, and trafficking by criminal and terrorist groups.

8. U.S. Department of State Partners with International Council of Museums to Fight Illicit Traffic of West African Cultural Heritage

   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.

9. U.S. Department of State Partners with International Council of Museums to Fight Illicit Traffic of Yemeni Cultural Heritage

   In response to the civil war in Yemen in 2015-2016 and in an effort to help protect endangered Yemeni art and antiquities for future generations, the Department of State asked the International Council of Museums (ICOM) to produce an Emergency Red List of Cultural Objects at Risk for Yemen. It was launched at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on January 31.

10. U.S. and Greece Sign Memorandum of Understanding

    

    The U.S. and Greece sign a cultural property protection agreement that imposes import restrictions on categories of archaeological and Byzantine ecclesiastical ethnological material through the 15th century A.D. of the Hellenic Republic.

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