Italian policies for the restitution of illicitly trafficked cultural heritage, based on the rule of law and interested cooperation

Abstract

We are very proud to hold this meeting in Rome today. I want to thank U nidroit for its passionate work—in particular, Ms Schneider, senior officer of the organization, who always gives her passion for such an important cause. Yes, I was the Mayor of Rome during the proceedings and the approbation of the Convention here in Rome. Maybe there is a spirit of Rome allowing the European Union here on the Capitol Hill to adopt the Treaties of Rome in 1957, maybe there was also a spirit of Rome and of the Capitol Hill in 1998 when the Statute of the International Criminal Court was approved here. But, of course, now we face very tough challenges. I will say a few words about Italian policies for the restitution of illicitly trafficked cultural heritage based on the rule of law and international cooperation. I think that these two concepts either work together or do not work at all. We need to fight illicit trafficking and we need cooperation. I believe that the experience of many ministers of culture in the Italian government was inspired by these two goals. I was responsible for some relevant restitutions to our national heritage in the years between 2006 and 2008 when I was minister of culture. However, it was never a personal purpose: it was a cooperation issue, and it was a way of fighting crime against art and cultural heritage, starting with Italy. It was not only an attempt to achieve an important change of policy by big institutions, private museums, and public museums, but it was also our goal to stop illegal activities, local mafias, and local traffickers—what we call tombaroli —from acting in our country. 1 I believe that these are common international goals and not nationalistic goals. For example, if you walk around Rome and you look at obelisks, they are of course stolen artefacts. Even if they are re-baptized artefacts—because when Pope Sixtus V in the sixteenth century decided to put a cross over the obelisks that the Roman Empire had brought from Egypt, he decided to give a new meaning and a new life to each monument. They were also very important as landmarks for people walking in Rome because they were re-erected in front of churches in order to show people where to go at the end of the roads that were built by the Renaissance popes. Yet you will not see the Axum obelisk in Rome any more because our government gave it back to Ethiopia. It was a colonial legacy of the Fascist era. To return it was a controversial decision, but, in the end, our country decided to give back what belonged to another country and that was the fruit of a recent historical colonial experience.