Cultural property
Cultural property, also known as cultural patrimony, comprises the physical items that are part of the cultural heritage of a group or society,[1] as opposed to less tangible cultural expressions.[2] They include such items as cultural landscapes, historic buildings, works of art, archaeological sites, as well as collections of libraries, archives, and museums.
Cultural property is legally protected by a number of international agreements and national laws. There is intensive cooperation between the United Nations, UNESCO and Blue Shield International on the protection of cultural goods.[3][4][5]
Definition
[edit]The phrase was used in various contexts in the 19th century. In 1891, The Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission described various countries' relationships to their fishing-related cultural properties including Germany, England, France, Italy, and Holland.[6] In 1899, it was also used in the context of oyster fishing in Holland.[7]
There is no universally agreed-upon definition of cultural property.[8] One widely used definition is provided by Article 1 of the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954:[9]
- "The term 'cultural property' shall cover, irrespective of origin or ownership:
- (a) movable or immovable property of great importance to the cultural heritage of every people, such as monuments of architecture, art, or history, whether religious or secular; archaeological sites; groups of buildings which, as a whole, are of historical or artistic interest; works of art; manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest; as well as scientific collections and important collections of books or archives or reproductions of the property defined above;
- (b) buildings whose main and effective purpose is to preserve or exhibit the movable cultural property defined in sub-paragraph (a) such as museums, large libraries and depositories of archives, and refuges intended to shelter, in the event of armed conflict, the movable cultural property defined in sub-paragraph (a);
- (c) centers containing a large amount of cultural property as defined in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b), to be known as 'centers containing monuments'."
Cultural heritage has been described as the 'most distinguishing form of a culture's expression' and includes both tangible and intangible elements such as 'traditional dances, customs and ceremonies'.[10] Cultural property is the essential elements of a culture that allow it to determined and identified.[10]
Emblem
[edit]Article 16 of the Convention describes the internationally recognized mark for cultural property as follows:
- (1) The distinctive emblem of the Convention shall take the form of a shield, pointed below, persaltire blue and white (a shield consisting of a royal-blue square, one of the angles of which forms the point of the shield, and of a royal-blue triangle above the square, the space on either side being taken up by a white triangle).
- Use of the Emblem is restricted under international humanitarian law. Guidance for using the emblem is available from The Blue Shield, and UNESCO.
History
[edit]The theme of the 1998 and 1999 International Museum Day was "The Fight against Illicit Traffic of Cultural Property."[11]
See also
[edit]- Heritage asset
- Heritage site
- World Heritage Site
- National Heritage Site
- National Monument
- Philippine Registry of Cultural Property
- National Commission for Culture and the Arts
References
[edit]- ^ Ann Marie Sullivan, Cultural Heritage & New Media: A Future for the Past, 15 J. MARSHALL REV. INTELL. PROP. L. 604 (2016) https://repository.jmls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1392&context=ripl
- ^ Lixinski, Lucas, 'Definitions: From Cultural Property to Cultural Heritage (and Back?)', International Heritage Law for Communities: Exclusion and Re-Imagination, Cultural Heritage Law and Policy (Oxford, 2019; online edn, Oxford Academic, 18 July 2019), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198843306.003.0002, accessed 27 Jan. 2023.
- ^ "UNESCO Legal Instruments: Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict 1999".
- ^ Roger O'Keefe, Camille Péron, Tofig Musayev, Gianluca Ferrari "Protection of Cultural Property. Military Manual." UNESCO, 2016, S. 73ff.
- ^ UNESCO Director-General calls for stronger cooperation for heritage protection at the Blue Shield International General Assembly. UNESCO, 13 September 2017.
- ^ Commission, United States Fish (1893). Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission. U.S. Government Printing Office.
- ^ Parliament, Canada (1899). Sessional Papers of the Dominion of Canada.
- ^ Knox, Christine K (2006). "They've Lost Their Marbles: 2002 Universal Museums' Declaration, The Elgin Marbles and the Future of the Repatriation Movement". Suffolk Transnational Law Review. 29: 315–336.
- ^ Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with Regulations for the Execution of the Convention 1954 at the UNESCO website
- ^ a b Shapiro, Daniel (1998). "Repatriation: A modest Proposal". heinonline.org. Archived from the original on 2021-08-04. Retrieved 2021-08-04.
- ^ Launch of International Museum Day 2011 'Objects tell your story', Hunan Provincial Museum.