Lisanne Gibson and Joanna Besley, Monumental Queensland: Signposts on a Cultural Landscape. Pp. 268. $49.95. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, 2004.

By surveying and documenting outdoor cultural objects, the authors of this book seek to inform communities about the significance of their public art objects and to provide a starting point for people to value such artworks as expressing what is unique about their experience and understanding of Queensland, Australia (p. 7). However, this begs the question of public value. People in colonial times (nineteenth century) gave private subscriptions to have public monuments and memorials erected, and currently, Queensland has a Public Art Agency whose enabling legislation makes it mandatory for all public works projects to fund public art works associated with and integral to new construction, as part of the “Art Built-In” program. Queenslanders clearly like monuments!

Religion has inspired the creation of art throughout human history. Most religious works of art are not considered to be sacred objects. Instead, these works serve to express religious ideas, values or feelings. Some works of art are, however, considered sacred objects. While art museums are secular institutions, the acquisition, handling, treatment, and interpretation of works of art deemed to be sacred objects may warrant special consideration since these works possess multiple purposes as works of art and sacred objects.

A recent Australian case has clearly illustrated the tensions between export regulations and the circulation of important cultural works through international exhibition. So far such claims have involved efforts of heirs of collectors to seize works of art appropriated in another country and temporarily located outside that country for exhibition, such as the claim by the Altman heirs in the United States or of Schuckina in France—a situation dealt with in many cases by indemnity statutes which prevent their seizure. This case involved the sensitivity of indigenous people who regard the work in question as part of their cultural heritage.

Switzerland is undergoing a period of change from the perspective of fighting the illegal traffic of cultural goods. Effective January 3, 2004, Switzerland has ratified the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export, and transfer of ownership of cultural property. Furthermore the convention has been put into effect in Switzerland by the adoption of the Federal Act on the International Transfer of Cultural Property (CPTA) and its related ordinance, both of which took effect on June 1, 2005.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I would like to express my thanks to my friend and colleague Professor Bénédict Foëx for his comments, his insight, and our lively discussions about this case. My thanks also go to the editors of the Uniform Law Review, which has published a French version of the present article.Unif. L. Rev./Rev. dr. Unif. (2006): 399.

S. R. M. Mackenzie, Going Going, Gone: Regulating the Market in Illicit Antiquities. Pp. viii, 290. Institute of Art and Law, Leicester: 2005. ISBN: 1-903987-07-5.

“It's very rare to get something with a provenance, with an actual collection name. Usually it's entirely anonymous, especially in the London and New York trade. Just objects for sale in a shop …” (p. 32). To anyone with an interest in the antiquities market, this Melbourne dealer's view is unsurprising. More surprising, perhaps, is the dealer's willingness to even discuss the issue of provenance and the extent to which the antiquities market is awash with unprovenanced illicit antiquities. Essentially, Simon Mackenzie's work is about provenance. He sets out to answer the question, “How should we regulate the antiquities market so as most appropriately to address the issue of looted antiquities in that market?” (p. 1). The first step in answering this question is to understand how the market actually functions. And what better way than to ask market participants themselves. Mackenzie does so through interviews with dealers, collectors, auction house representatives, and museum curators; and the work is substantially based around an analysis of these interviews. The extensive use of quotes allows readers a glimpse into the secretive and exclusive world of the antiquities market and lays bare the prevailing attitude of the interviewees, providing a rich (and dare I say, even entertaining) dialogue throughout the work.

The Getty Museum seeks to foster in a broad audience a greater appreciation and understanding of art by collecting and preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting works of art. Our collection is the principal means by which the Museum's mission is fulfilled, and the Museum is therefore committed to further developing the collection according to the highest ethical standards and in compliance with all applicable laws.

Lyndel Prott, ed., Finishing the Interrupted Voyage: Papers of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Workshop on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage pp. 168; UNESCO Publishing and Institute of Art and Law, Leicester: 2006. ISBN: 1-90398711-3.

Almost 5 years after its adoption, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage has a mere six state parties. It requires 20 parties for the convention to come into force. Although there may be numerous reasons why states have failed to ratify the convention, perhaps the most common is simply because many developing states, even those rich in underwater cultural heritage, have little experience or expertise with protecting underwater cultural heritage, both practical and legal; and they are hesitant to ratify the convention without ensuring that they can implement the then-binding international obligations. This is particularly the case in the Asia-Pacific region, rich in underwater cultural heritage but as yet not represented in those states party to the convention. The need to encourage ratification of the convention in the Asia-Pacific is best described in the paper by Jeremy Green:

Sabine Boos, Kulturgut als Gegenstand des grenzüberschreitenden Leihverkehrs (Cultural Property as Objects of Transnational Loans) pp. 328. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 2006. ISBN 3-428-12034-5.

Almost every important art exhibition also exhibits art objects on loan from domestic or foreign institutions or private owners. Recently, this lending policy has been severely threatened by third parties trying to attach art objects on loan from foreign countries and claiming to be the rightful owners of these objects, which were expropriated many years ago by the Nazis or stolen, converted, or confiscated abroad. Also, creditors of lending institutions may try to get hold of these objects and liquidate them. The Schiele affair, the Malewicz case, and the Russian-Swiss controversy about loans to the Fondation Pierre Gianadda at Martigny, Switzerland, from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow illustrate these dangers. Therefore, any study dealing with these problems and offering solutions for preventing or mitigating such clashes of interest is welcome. Boos devoted her research for a doctoral thesis, submitted to the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, to these problems, mainly those of a return guarantee given to the foreign lending institution with respect to art objects on loan for a local exhibition.

AGREEMENT

This conference brought together some 200 academics and administrators concerned with Mediterranean prehistory, history, and heritage. It was conceived and organized by Sophia Antoniadou, curator of the Pierides Museum, and Anthony Pace, superintendent of Cultural Heritage of Malta, who have also edited the proceedings, published in 2007. It was sponsored by the Pierides Foundation of Cyprus with the collaboration of the Foundation of the Hellenic Greek World, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage of Malta, the Istituto per le Tecnologie Applicate ai Beni Culturali-Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche of Italy, and the Centre de Recherches en Arts, Images et Formes of the Université de Picardie Jules Verne of France; and support came from the Culture 2000 program of the European Union, the Greek Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation. Following an introductory lecture by Professor Harry Tzalas on Greek ships and seamanship, participants heard and discussed 40 papers by speakers from a dozen countries on topics ranging from pottery and mortuary practices to trade, shipping, identity, and heritage.

The World Archaeological Congress' 2nd Indigenous Intercongress, The Uses and Abuses of Archaeology for Indigenous Peoples, convened between November 8 and 12, 2005, at the University of Auckland and Waipapa Marae to examine issues relating to and concerned with indigenous peoples and their past. The organization committee included coconvenors Dr. Joe Watkins, Dr. Caroline Phillips, and Dr. Des Kahotea along with Academic Program Chair Stephanie Ford and Conference Administrator Margaret Rika-Heke. The first Intercongress, on Archaeological Ethics and the Treatment of the Dead, was held in 1989 in Vermillion, South Dakota, and focused on the topics of reburial and repatriation. The Vermillion Accord on the treatment of human remains, an outgrowth of that conference, forms one of the primary ethics documents for the World Archaeological Congress, by which members of the WAC agree to abide in conjunction with the WAC First Code of Ethics.

Over the past decade, tribal leaders, archivists, and librarians in the United States and Canada have expressed an interest in improving existing relationships and developing new relationships with nontribal institutions that hold American Indian archival material. In April 2006 a group of 19 Native American and non-Native American archivists, librarians, museum curators, historians, and anthropologists gathered at Northern Arizona University Cline Library in Flagstaff, Arizona. The participants included representatives from 15 Native American, First Nation, and Aboriginal communities. The group met to identify best professional practices for culturally responsive care and use of American Indian archival materials.

The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Center of Uniform Law, under the auspices of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) based in Rome, organized an international seminar in Mexico City from September 6 to 8, 2006. The purpose of the seminar was to evaluate how efficiently international conventions protecting cultural objects. The seminar was attended mostly by Latin American colleagues and the secretaries of culture and general directors of cultural institutes of the Mexican Federal States.

The first regional conference on integrative protection, entitled Cultural Landscape: A Modern Approach to the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage in the Balkans, was held in Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) on October 30 to November 1, 2006. The conference was organized by European Center for Peace and Development (ECPD) of the University for Peace established by the United Nations with support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, Republican Institute for Protection of Cultural-Historical and Natural Heritage, Banja Luka, and the City of Banja Luka. More than 100 participants attended the conference, which consisted of papers on various issues prepared by experts from the Balkan region.

Book notes.

Chronicles 2005 (January 1, 2005–December 31, 2005).