On August 12, the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce and Williams Director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Julian Siggers signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a new public-private partnership. Under this partnership, the Department of State and the Penn Cultural Heritage Center will cooperate to combat international cultural property trafficking.

The memorandum stated:

The United States is unwavering in its commitment to protect and preserve cultural heritage around the world and to combat the trafficking in cultural property that funds criminal and terrorist networks. This new partnership will facilitate consultations between U.S. law enforcement officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection and experts in archaeology and art history when expertise is needed during the course of investigations. Experts from the faculty and staff of the University of Pennsylvania and other relevant universities, museums, libraries, archives, and nonprofit organizations will also participate.

The U.S. Government’s Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee member agencies have repatriated more than 20,000 cultural objects to more than 45 different countries and supported nearly 100 training programs in the United States and overseas.

For more information, visit the Cultural Heritage Center website at https://eca.state.gov/cultural-heritage-center/ and the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at https://www.penn.museum/sites/chc