ABSTRACT
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) finalized a formal mediation process in 2007, as a means to settle disputes regarding the return/restitution of stolen and/or illegally exported cultural property held in museum collections.1 In December 2005, the ICOM Executive Council formally adopted the recommendation of the ICOM Legal Affairs Committee-which had cosponsored a discussion of the legal and ethical considerations associated with questions of ownership of cultural properties at the 2004 annual ICOM meeting in Seoul, Korea-that ICOM should establish a formal mediation process in which museums could participate to resolve some of the possession and ownership issues without their having to resort to costly litigation. Through its initiation of a new written mediation procedure, ICOM has revitalized its ongoing policy, which it had espoused at least since its 1983 (London) General Conference, of seeking voluntary settlements to disputes regarding the ownership of objects in museum collections that allegedly were stolen or illegally exported from the country of origin.2 Through this formal mediation process, ICOM will offer practical assistance and advice on mediation as an alternative to court proceedings.3 As John McAvity, the current chair of the ICOM Legal Affairs Committee, has affirmed, museums and those who have disputes with museums can begin to utilize ICOM’s formal mediation process after ICOM completes its training for approved mediators in 2009.4 Patrick
Boylan, the first chair of the ICOM Legal Affairs Committee, emphasized that ICOM would not want to choose sides between museums and has no desire to be a party to litigation.5 Boylan characterized the ICOM mediation process as one wherein ICOM “will help willing parties get to the table” so as to move them “a step closer to a reconciliation.”6
