USCBS News

The U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield and The Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation present the conference:

“Culture & Conflict: The U.S. & the 1954 Hague Convention”

DATES:

Thursday, October 22^nd, USCBS and LCCHP membership meetings and joint reception

Friday, October 23^rd, Culture and Conflict: the U.S. and the 1954 Hague Convention

LOCATION:

National Trust for Historic Preservation

1785 Massachusetts Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20036

www.preservationnation.org

Click here to register or go to culturalheritagelaw.org

In March 2009, the United States ratified the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict raising serious questions about implementation and next steps for the U.S. military and for this country generally.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation and U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield present a conference, “Culture and Conflict: The United States and the 1954 Hague Convention,” to consider the domestic and international ramifications of U.S. ratification.

The conference will begin with an evaluation of the continuing efforts to restitute art works looted during the Holocaust and not recovered in the immediate aftermath of World War II, particularly in light of the June 2009 Prague conference on the status of restitution efforts throughout Europe and the United States. The program will then turn to what government organizations, particularly the U.S. military, are doing to ensure compliance with the 1954 Hague Convention and to avert or mitigate cultural damage in future conflicts.  The final panel will discuss what more the U.S. must do to protect its own cultural heritage in event of conflict, the prospects for future ratification of the Hague Convention’s First and Second Protocols, and the role of the Hague Convention ratification within U.S. public and cultural diplomacy.

Click here to see full schedule and to register or go to culturalheritagelaw.org

“Diane Tucker
Writer/producer/director living in Washington DC
Posted: September 21, 2009 04:46 PM
Huffington Post

Brutal Destruction Of Iraq’s Archaeological Sites Continues (SLIDESHOW)

Buried in Iraq’s clay and dirt is the history of Western civilization. Great empires once thrived here, cultures that produced the world’s first wheel, first cities, first agriculture, first code of law, first base-sixty number system, and very possibly the first writing. A brutal plundering of this rich cultural heritage has been taking place in broad daylight ever since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These days Ancient Mesopotamia looks more like a scene from the movie Holes.

“I still find it hard to believe this is happening,” Clemens Reichel told the Huffington Post. “Since the 2003 Iraq War, my work as a field archaeologist has changed forever. Sometimes it feels more like an undertaker’s work.” Reichel is a Mesopotamian archaeologist at the University of Toronto, and former editor of the Iraq Museum Database Project at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.

The scope of the catastrophe taking place cannot be overstated, said Reichel…

Read more, and see the photographs at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-tucker/brutal-destruction-of-ira_b_290667.html

October 22-23, 2009

Washington, D.C.

In March 2009, the United States ratified the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict raising serious questions about implementation and next steps for the U.S. military and for this country generally. The Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation and U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield present a conference, “Culture and Conflict: The United States and the 1954 Hague Convention,” to consider the domestic and international ramifications of U.S. ratification. The conference will begin with an evaluation of the continuing efforts to restitute art works looted during the Holocaust and not recovered in the immediate aftermath of World War II, particularly in light of the June 2009 Prague conference on the status of restitution efforts throughout Europe and the United States. The program will then turn to what government organizations, particularly the U.S. military, are doing to ensure compliance with the Hague Convention and to avert or mitigate cultural damage in future conflicts.  The final panel will discuss what more the U.S. must do to protect its own cultural heritage in event of conflict, the prospects for future ratification of the Hague Convention’s First and Second Protocols, and the role of the Hague Convention ratification within U.S. public and cultural diplomacy.

USCBS and LCCHP will hold a membership meeting and reception at the National Trust in Washington, D.C. on the afternoon of Thursday, October 22nd. The conference will be held on Friday, October 23, 2009, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. Confirmed speakers include:

Lynn Nicholas, author of Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War

Monica Dugot, Senior Vice-President and International Director of Restitution, Christie’s, New York

Robert Edsel, author of The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History

Patty Gerstenblith, President, Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation, and Distinguished Research Professor, DePaul University College of Law

Karl von Habsburg, President, Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield, and Cultural Property Protection Officer, Austrian Army

Richard Jackson, Special Assistant to the Judge Advocate General for Law of War Matters and Colonel (Ret.), U.S. Army

Thomas R. Kline, Partner, Andrews Kurth LLP and Assistant Professorial Lecturer, George Washington University, Museum Studies Program

Hays Parks, Deputy General Counsel for Law of War Matters in the Department of Defense General Counsel’s Office and Colonel (Ret.) U.S. Marine Corps

Corine Wegener, President, U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield; Associate Curator, Decorative Arts, Textiles, and Sculpture at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, andMajor (Ret.)  U.S. Army Reserve

Nancy Yeide, Head, Department of Curatorial Research, National Gallery

A full program and registration for the conference will be available on the LCCHP website, culturalheritagelaw.org, on September 24, 2009.