Controlling the Illicit Trade in Cultural Property: Moving Beyond Cultural Heritage Law Towards the International Fight against Transnational Organized Crime

Value is one of the main cores of cultural heritage protection and this is what makes ownership of cultural property attractive, both legal and illegal.

Trade in cultural property is something that has been going on for a long time.

Despite the emergence of cultural heritage law and the efforts of the UNESCO organization in ratifying the 1970 Convention on the Prohibition and Prevention of Illegal Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property, the number of illegal trade in cultural property in the world has not decreased and cultural property is still the target of destruction and theft. and smuggling and illegal trade.

Currently, more organized crime gangs are involved in the trade of cultural heritage objects.

Trade in cultural objects is an essential source for laundering the proceeds of crime by organized crime networks, and there is a possibility that it can be used as a source of funding for terrorist groups.

This research aims to state that cultural heritage rights conventions alone cannot heal the wounds caused by the looting of cultural property.

From this point of view, we say that it is necessary to move towards an approach that regulates the prevention and control of illegal trade of cultural property by focusing on criminal law.

Such an approach considers the acts against cultural property as transnational organized crimes and seeks to protect cultural property and its legal ownership as much as possible.