ABSTRACT
The Convention was concluded and opened for signature in Rome on 24 June 1995 and was the product of six long years of negotiation. One of the reasons that it took so long to reach a final agreement on the wording of the text was the fact that the framers of the Convention had the difficult task of balancing two diametrically opposed sets of interests. On the one hand, there were some countries, usually those were who rich in cultural heritage but poor in material wealth, who argued that the preservation of the indigenous cultural heritage of each contracting State should be paramount and that restrictive laws should be adopted. On the other hand, many countries which were rich in economic terms but lacking in cultural property, argued that the free exchange of cultural property across borders benefited all mankind because it increased exposure to and appreciation of different cultures. Delegates from these countries argued that the proposed Convention should facilitate the free market as much as possible. The Convention does its best to meet both sets of needs and, in its preamble, recognises the difficulties caused by the need to consider both sets of interests and states its fundamental aim as follows:
Article 1 of the Convention provides that it shall apply to:
It can thus be seen that the emphasis of the Convention is on situations where the cultural property in question has crossed a national frontier. Circumstances involving purely domestic transactions are not covered by the Convention at all.
