UNESCO Appeals for Preventon of Smuggling of Syrian heritage

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The government crackdown on an opposition uprising in Syria has been going on now for over a year. Sanctions have now been imposed. The U.N. estimates the violence has left more than 9,000 people dead. Reports are also appearing of damage to ancient sites among the property affected.  Now UNESCO is calling on member states and international bodies: 

to help make sure that elements of Syria's rich cultural heritage are not pilfered and sent abroad for sale amid violence in the country. The U.N. cultural agency says director-general Irina Bokova has alerted agencies such as world police body Interpol and the World Customs Organization that objects from Syria could turn up on the international antiquities market. In a statement Friday, Bokova said UNESCO is ready to look into media reports of damage to Syria's cultural heritage "as soon as this becomes possible." 

And of course depending on the limitations on the effectiveness of its activities caused by the funding crisis due to the USA withdrawing its contributions last year. 

So, how long will it take the US to do its bit "to help make sure that elements of Syria's rich cultural heritage are not pilfered and imported into the US for sale"? Emergency restrictions? And how long will they take, when they've instituted none for Egypt still a year and two months after the looting started? Or will they go through the long drawn-out CPAC/MOU process - with the antiquity dealers and collectors as usual kicking against it all the way? I suspect that by the time that gets put in place, a huge amount of stuff will have passed through the barrier of bubbles that is US customs control when illicit antiquities are concerned, to be "legally bought and sold" no-questions-asked by undiscriminating US dealers and collectors.  

The rest of us of course will be applying the principles embodied in the whole 1970 Convention, not encumbered by cumbersome 1980s pro-dealer "implementation" legislation and simply seize tainted artefacts at point of entry when encountered.  [This is the background to US-exclusionist collectors' lobbyists suggesting that in some way they are in some way "discriminated against" by the current US legislation, presumably they'd prefer the no-questions-asked buying of potentially illicitly exported cultural property to be indefinite for US dealers and collectors]

Huffington Post, 'UNESCO appeals for saving Syrian heritage', March 31, 2012