ABSTRACT
In 2008, major steps were taken toward wider acceptance of the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict with the vote of the U.S. Senate to ratify the main Convention and the drafting of legislation by the United Kingdom and New Zealand that would implement the Convention and both Protocols. Recoveries of cultural objects that were brought into the United States illegally continued, as did also voluntary restitutions of classical antiquities from American collections to Italy and to Greece. Litigation by the victims of terrorist attacks to attach cultural objects on loan from Iran to U.S. institutions was further complicated by legislation enacted in early 2008. This legislation amended the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to make it easier for victims to attach the property of a state sponsor of terrorism to satisfy judgments that they had previously obtained.
