Courses 

All courses will meet at the Facolta di Giurisprudenza of the University of Siena.  Classes will be held Monday through Thursday only, with field trips on Fridays.  All final exams will be held on Friday, June 25^th, during the regularly scheduled class time.  All students must take a core course entitled “The International Legal Framework for the Protection of Art and Cultural Property.”  Law students may choose any two of the other three courses, for a total of four ABA credits for the program.  Students in other disciplines or professionals may take all four courses, if they wish.  The credit to be awarded to non-law students will be determined by their own institutions.     

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS 

The International Legal Framework for the Protection of Art and Cultural Property – Professors Gordley and Francioni

This two-credit course, designed for law students, students in other disciplines, and working professionals will provide an introduction to the complex and often confusing web of principles and systems that constitute international law.  Concepts such as sovereignty, jurisdiction, and standing will be considered, as well as the basic rights of both nations and individuals to their art and their cultural property.      

The class will address the major conventions regarding the protection of art and cultural property, including the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, and the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity.

From Gray to Black: the Markets in Stolen and Looted Art and Antiquities – Professor Larson and Colonel Bogdanos

It has been estimated that in monetary terms, the markets in stolen or looted art and antiquities constitute the fourth largest black market in the world ($5-8 billion a year), and are exceeded only by the illegal markets in arms, drugs, and fraudulent securities.  This course will examine those markets from three perspectives: that of archeologists; that of art historians; and that of lawyers.  From these different viewpoints, students will gain an understanding of how these markets work, who supports them, who attempts to suppress them, and why most legal efforts to combat them have proven to be almost complete failures.  During these two weeks, the course will examine the relevant criminal laws of the European Union, the United States, and Italy. 

The last week of the course will treat the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad as a “case study,” one that illustrates the principles and concepts addressed in the first two weeks of the course.  Students will follow that looting from its discovery, through its investigation, to its successful conclusion, which resulted in the recovery of almost all of the priceless artifacts and treasures that had been stolen. 

Collections and Collectors:  the Ethical and Legal Issues – Professor Flora

This course will explore the ever-changing ethical and legal issues surrounding the acquisition of art by museums and collectors. What duty does a museum have to ensure that it is not acquiring stolen property?  When must property that is discovered to be stolen be returned to its rightful owner – and what if that owner cannot be found?  Is it ethical for a private collector to purchase a masterpiece, and deny the public access to it?  Taking advantage of resources in Siena itself, such as the city Paintings Gallery, the Museo del'Opera del Duomo, as well as collections not normally open to the public such as the one belonging to the Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the course will look at how and why art (in particular Italian works by seminal figures in Sienese painting such as Duccio) was and is acquired by museums and collectors in Italy and abroad. The course will be particularly timely given various current events, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art's recent acquisition of a painting by Duccio, for which it spent a then-record $45 million.

The Protection of Art in Times of Crisis: from War to Natural Disasters – Professors Lenzerini and Pavoni

From earliest times, art and cultural property have been treated, and prized as “the spoils of war.”   In just the past century, civilization has witnessed massive theft and destruction of art and cultural property during armed conflicts, ranging from the systematic looting of the artwork of entire nations by the Nazis during WWII, to the deliberate eradication of Buddhist temples and monasteries in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge, to the recent pillaging of an entire national museum.  Unfortunately, the legal efforts to protect art and cultural property during such armed conflicts have not kept pace.  This course will survey those efforts, beginning with the ancient “laws of war,” continuing up through the Lieber Code, the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, and ending with Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. 

In addition, a portion of the course will be devoted to the issue of protecting art during other times of crisis, such as natural disasters.  The course will use the experience of New Orleans and its museums during Hurricane Katrina as a basis for these lectures. 

 The Course Schedule is as follows: