10/06/2024

A workshop "Fighting the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property in the Western Balkans" is going to take place at the Agency for Education and Professional Training in Mostar in the next five days. It is organized in cooperation with the UNESCO Office in Sarajevo and with the financial support of the European Commission.

The workshop aims to raise awareness and develop professional capacities to combat theft, robbery, and illegal trade in cultural property through enhanced inter-agency and cross-border cooperation. It gathered representatives of police institutions of all levels of government, ministries of culture and cultural institutions, the Indirect Taxation Authority and the judicial system.

Marko Vujević, director of the Agency for Education and Professional Training said he appreciated the cooperation of AEPTM with UNESCO Office in Sarajevo and added: "I am glad that the workshop brought together representatives of a large number of institutions. Only in that way, through coordinated and continuous action can we respond to the challenges of illegal art trade. The problem requires a sophisticated approach, technical support, and the application of various operational activities, which will be analyzed in detail at the workshop.’’

Siniša Šešum, the head of the UNESCO office in Sarajevo, highlighted the need for joint, institutional action and said: "It is important for us to connect institutions fighting against illegal trade in cultural property, which unfortunately has not received enough attention." The value of illegal trade in cultural property, which occurs in our region or passes through it, makes up about 6-8% of the whole industry.

The implementation of the project "Fighting the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property in the Western Balkans" directly contributes to the realization of the specific obligations that our country needs to fulfill in the accession negotiations with the European Union.  Bosnia and Herzegovina is expected to develop a system of combating illegal trade in cultural property and establish in it units to fight against this type of crime.

Over the next five days, thirty lecturers and trainers from BiH and the world will work together with the participants of the Mostar workshop. The workshop experts come from UNESCO, UNIDROIT, UNODC, INTERPOL, EUROPOL and the Italian Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. The programme moderator is Zeynep Boz,, the head of the Anti-Smuggling Department at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey and a UNESCO consultant.