Heightened Scrutiny on Antiquities CollectorsHeightened Scrutiny on Antiquities Collectors

Collectors, and their trustees and executors, may be surprised to discover that antiquity objects they’ve owned for decades could become subject to patrimony claims by foreign governments. Patrimony claims are brought by countries to reclaim cultural property that’s been illegally exported or “stolen” from their territories. Countries’ patrimony laws differ in their definitions of what constitutes cultural property, but the unifying theme among patrimony laws is that they vest state ownership in cultural property taken from within a state’s borders and may disallow the private ownership and/or export of cultural property. In addition to patrimony laws, international treaties exist to protect the international trade of cultural property, ...