Art theft

The University of Cambridge, Department of History of Art Seminar Series on the theme of 'ART & LAW' will take place every Wednesday from 18 January – 8 March 2017 at 5:00pm in the Department of History of Art, 1-5 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge CB2 1PX. Each lecture will be followed by a Q&A session and informal drinks reception. Members of the university and the general public are welcome to attend.

If you are interested in joining the speaker and organizers for dinner following a lecture, please contact Sarah Alexis Rabinowe at [email protected].

The paper deals with the issue of illegal trade in art objects with special regard to customs control. Frequent commodity types smuggled across borders are works of arts belonging to the category of cultural goods. In many cases, these objects have rather historical than aesthetic value. Determining the age and value of cultural goods require expertise in art. The identification of cultural goods of archaeological date (i.e. produced before 1711 as stipulated in the Hungarian legislation) and the origin of their cultural relevance as it once have been found in the soil is the responsibility of an archaeologist. Detecting illegally moving artefacts as contrabands, however, challenges the law enforcement authorities, including the National Tax and Customs Administration. Theft, transportation and trading in illicit cultural goods considered strictly illegal all over the world, still the authorities are facing tremendous difficulties while filtering out such contrabands from the legitimate trade. This article emphasises the interdependence between the archaeologists and the law enforcement and proposes how to reduce illicit trade. The author concludes the need of supplemented officer training by a package of specific knowledge such as a module in order to increase the cooperation between the parties and boost the efficiency of the contraband detection. (Suggested citation: Hudák, Krisztina and Csaba, Zágon (2020) A brief Survey of Illicit Art Trade of Archaeological Finds in Hungary – in the Context of Customs Control. In: Csaba, Zágon and Szabó, Andrea (eds.) Közös kihívások – egykor és most. Tanulmánykötet. Magyar Rendészettudományi Társaság Vám- és Pénzügyőri Tagozat, Budapest. pp. 133-143. DOI:10.37372/mrttvpt.2020.1.7)