Fine Art in Dark Corners: Goals and Realities of International Cultural Property Protection as Switzerland Implements the 1970 Unesco Convention

Switzerland, despite its historic preference for neutrality, is taking a definitive stand on the issue of cultural property as the Swiss Federal Council submitted its instrument of accession to the UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property on October 3, 2003. Like some other wealthy nations, Switzerland is implementing the Convention as tensions mount regarding disagreements over the current situation of cultural property dispersion. Within the past few decades, international trade in art and cultural property has grown exponentially. Both national and international laws have arguably been slow to adapt to the contentious issues involved in the movement of art from one nation to another. A wide array of issues provides possible reasons for this sluggish progress. These reasons range from disparate museum policies to different national practices regarding how to handle art confiscated by the Nazis, to the fact that many cultural property problems are settled out of court and thus do not provide precedent for subsequent cases.