Switzerland was once a hot destination for stolen cultural artefacts. But now it’s trying hard to secure the return of treasures.
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It’s working closely with the Italian authorities. The latest handover was in October: the Swiss gave the Italian embassy in Bern 27 objects of huge historic and artistic value. These included 26 Etruscan artefacts from a private collection and a 2,000-year-old marble bust, found at the Geneva free port.
The illicit trafficking of cultural artefacts is the world’s third-largest illegal market, after drugs and weapons. Countries such as Italy, which has a rich cultural heritage, have been working hard for decades to stop it.
As the Lugano lawyer and expert in art law Dario Jucker explains, stolen cultural property represents a vast illegal market.
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Can the art market regulate itself against illicit activity?
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A group of Geneva-based art dealers and specialists are trying to raise awareness about business risks and to repair the sector’s damaged reputation.
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Alongside the United States, France and Britain, Switzerland is one of the principle trading centres for art. But until 2005 there was no law or national regulation governing this lucrative sector, which accounted for SFr1.39 billion ($1.21 billion) of imports and SFr1.4 billion of exports in 2009. This situation encouraged traffickers and unscrupulous art collectors.…
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The House of Representatives has approved legislation that brings Switzerland into line with the 1970 Unesco Convention against cultural goods trafficking. Parliament decided on Tuesday to extend the timeframe for reclaiming stolen works of art to 30 years from the current five years enshrined in Swiss law. The Federal Office for Culture had proposed the…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.