Tell the State Dept what you know about antiquities trafficking

The Cultural Property Advisory Committee of the US State Department is seeking expert commentary on recent requests made by the governments of Chile and Jordan to restrict the import of sensitive antiquities and, in Chile’s case, palaeontological items. This is part of the normal process for getting one of these bilateral agreements passed and it is important for people out there with knowledge of the looting, trafficking, and marketisation of these antiquities and fossils to share what they know in advance of a decision.

Please take a moment to submit if you feel strongly about these MoUs. Especially take that moment if you have something to say about Chile, I suspect that there won’t be as many commentators on that one. I’ve prepared a bit of guidance about what kind of info to submit in this previous post about the Bolivian MoU, same deal applies:

You can help protect Bolivian antiquities and sacred art from trafficking with one comment

You must submit your comments by March 25, 2019.

Submit your comments here: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOS-2019-0004-0001

Read a summary of the requests from Jordan and Chile here: https://eca.state.gov/highlight/cultural-property-advisory-committee-meeting-april-1-3

Read the larger public summary of Chile’s request here: https://eca.state.gov/files/bureau/chile2018request_summary.pdf

Note that on 1 April at 1:30PM EST the US State Department will be broadcasting this meeting live online. It is worth tuning in.

[Image from the website of the Museo Chileno De Arte Precolombino]