Tracing Legitimacy in the Art Market: Evaluating Thirty Years of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention

This article examines the impact of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects thirty years after its adoption, placing the emphasis on the legitimacy of acquiring cultural goods. The Convention has reshaped the allocation of risk, responsibility, and evidentiary burden in the international art market, redefining the relationships among possessors, intermediaries, and source states under an affirmative standard of due diligence. In doing so, it departs from the traditional focus on transactional security that characterizes both civil-law and common-law systems. The article further considers the Convention’s capacity to address the traditional reluctance of courts in market-state jurisdictions to enforce foreign public law on cultural property. Despite these achievements, the Convention’s limited ratification by a substantial number of states has constrained its overall effectiveness. The article concludes by reflecting on potential strategies to enhance its reach, including broader ratification and harmonized implementation measures, underscoring the Convention’s continuing role in shaping the jurisprudence of cultural property disputes over the past three decades.