A brief Survey of Illicit Art Trade of Archaeological Finds in Hungary – in the Context of Customs Control

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of illegal trade in art objects with special regard to customs control. Frequent commodity types smuggled across borders are works of arts belonging to the category of cultural goods. In many cases, these objects have rather historical than aesthetic value. Determining the age and value of cultural goods require expertise in art. The identification of cultural goods of archaeological date (i.e. produced before 1711 as stipulated in the Hungarian legislation) and the origin of their cultural relevance as it once have been found in the soil is the responsibility of an archaeologist. Detecting illegally moving artefacts as contrabands, however, challenges the law enforcement authorities, including the National Tax and Customs Administration. Theft, transportation and trading in illicit cultural goods considered strictly illegal all over the world, still the authorities are facing tremendous difficulties while filtering out such contrabands from the legitimate trade. This article emphasises the interdependence between the archaeologists and the law enforcement and proposes how to reduce illicit trade. The author concludes the need of supplemented officer training by a package of specific knowledge such as a module in order to increase the cooperation between the parties and boost the efficiency of the contraband detection. is, a és Világszerte illegális és büntetendő a kulturális javak eltulajdonítása és illegális kereskedelme. A kihívást jelent kiegészíteni