Founded in 1879, the AIA was chartered by the United States Congress in 1906, in recognition of its role in the development and passage of the Antiquities Act, which Theodore Roosevelt signed into law that year. Today, the AIA remains committed to preserving the world’s archaeological resources and cultural heritage for the benefit of people in the present and in the future.
An overview of how law enforcement works to protect cultural heritage.
Thanks to your response, the AIA sent in hundreds of letters to the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC) on your behalf. CPAC met May 6-7, 2010 to review the Memorandum of Understanding with Italy.
The State Department’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee met on May 6, 2010, to consider renewing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the U.S. and Italy in 2001 and extended in 2006. Read AIA First Vice-President, Elizabeth Bartman’s personal account of the meeting.
As the prospect for war in Iraq gains momentum, archaeologists have become increasingly concerned about the fate of that country’s archaeological sites, antiquities, and cultural property.
The extraordinary global significance of the monuments, museums, and archaeological sites of Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia) imposes an obligation on all peoples and governments to protect them. In any military conflict that heritage is put at risk, and it appears now to be in grave danger.
In the face of the recent destruction and looting of Iraq’s archaeological sites, museums and libraries, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced an initiative aimed at the preservation and documentation of “cultural resources in Iraq’s archives, libraries, and museums.
A First-Person Account of the CPAC Meeting Reviewing Italian Import Restrictions
A new Memorandum of Understanding was recently inked by the United States and the People’s Republic of China. The five-year agreement outlines steps designed to stem the flow of illicitly excavated or exported artifacts from China to the U.S.
The Archaeological Institute of America has issued the following statement concerning cultural objects on loan to U.S. institutions and calls for Congressional action to assure the security of international loans and exhibitions from attachment.
The AIA Governing Board endorsed the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
