Ecuador Requests Restrictions on Imports of Archaeological and Ethnological Goods

The State Department received a request from Ecuador in February under a UNESCO agreement to restrict U.S. imports of archaeological and ethnological materials representing Libya’s “cultural patrimony” from the pre-Columbian through Republican periods, State said. Libya filed the request under Article 9 of the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.