About Professor Felicity Gerry KC Professor Felicity Gerry KC is an international KC at Libertas Chambers, London and Crockett Chambers, Melbourne, largely defending in serious and complex criminal trials and appeals, often with an international element. She is a highprofile barrister who is regularly sought out by broadcasters for media commentary upon international legal issues, especially related to international crimes, terrorism and homicide and corporate responsibility for human rights abuses. About Fahrid Chishty Fahrid Chishty is an advocate with Libertas Chambers and practices across its core specialisations, with particular focus on serious and organized crime, fraud and financial crime and public international law. Beyond his Court practice, Fahrid has also developed an extensive advisory practice and has been instructed by business magnates, politicians and members of foreign royalty. Contact 20 Old Bailey, London, EC4M 7AN, UK Tel: +44 07956 853737 E: fgerrykc@libertaschambers.com www.libertaschambers.com under the auspices of reputable institutions. As such, there is a real risk that cultural assets from the MENA and South-Central Asia region have passed through criminal hands in transit to western art markets and are connected to terror financing and even narcotics and firearms trafficking. The nexus between terrorism, transnational organised crime and the arts is inextricably bound to policy positions assumed by both governments and non-state actors. This brings to the fore the realisation that illicit trafficking experience ebbs and flows, corresponding with the policies on cultural heritage protection and export controls enacted in each jurisdiction. In regions where regimes with militant or iconoclastic ideologies prevail, the risk of trafficking and destruction of cultural heritage remains at its highest. Against this landscape, criminal law has a critical role to play in developing protocols for the prevention of trade in blood antiquities. In much the same vein, private collectors need to monitor compliance with domestic legal frameworks when purchasing cultural assets whose provenance is tied to conflict zones or high-risk jurisdictions, the trade in which can come with significant criminal sanctions and financial confiscation. Internationally, again there is an interaction between law and art. Treaties and legal instruments prohibit the destruction of cultural heritage and impose duties on contracting states to positively protect these sites. Consider, for instance, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict 1954, which imposes safeguarding duties on States Parties amid military hostilities. Meanwhile, International Criminal Law has complemented these protective measures with a penal regime. The Rome Statute 1998 makes plain that the destruction of cultural heritage may constitute war crimes in particular circumstances involving attacks on historic monuments and buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science, or charitable purposes where they are not military objectives. Attacks directed at civilian objects and the act of pillaging, respectively are also proscribed. Against this backdrop, it is pertinent to reflect on the situation in Ukraine. Since February 2022, Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly reported that Russian forces have deliberately destroyed cultural heritage sites and looted ancient antiquities from its museums. If the preliminary evidential picture is inculpatory, foreshadowing criminal charges, the testing of this will increase the international jurisprudence on cultural heritage crimes and should cause collectors to increase wariness over objects for sale. The world of art and antiquities is rife with criminal law issues in 2023. Advancements in the digital marketplace have given rise to unprecedented opportunities and novel challenges for buyers, sellers and domestic governments in kind. Meanwhile, terrorism, black markets and war have opened new vectors for the illicit transmission and trafficking of artefacts and cultural goods. Afghanistan and Ukraine are hotspots of risk where cultural heritage is in danger of destruction, deconstruction or pillage and we anticipate a greater need for criminal law advice for collectors in this specialist area. SPECIAL FEATURE 39
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