Andrea Caligiuri writes:
The aim of this article is to analyse the relevant international norms and the practice followed by States in dealing with this issue. Necessarily, before carrying out this analysis, it is appropriate to specify what is meant by ‘cultural property’.
Since there is no uniform legal notion of this term in international law, for the purposes of this paper, reference will be made to the broad notion included in Article 1 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Restitution of Stolen Cultural Property, on the basis that claims for restitution from former colonies cover the cultural objects mentioned therein, although the application of this treaty to cultural property which has been removed during colonial times, as will be scrutinised below, is limited.
In some countries, such as Germany, Belgium and England, national museums and cultural institutions have also adopted policy papers for dealing with artefacts acquired from colonial contexts and provided recommendations to be followed in cases of restitution. But, in principle, the ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums already provides a universal basis for dealing with collections from colonial contexts and setting common standards by focusing on dialogue based on scientific, professional and humanitarian principles.
