1954 Hague Convention (cultural property in armed conflict)
The treaty requiring states to respect and safeguard cultural property in armed conflict, not to target it and to prevent its looting, including in occupied territory.
Adopted after the destruction and looting of the Second World War, the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict sets two obligations: safeguarding, which each state prepares in peacetime by inventorying and protecting its heritage, and respect, which forbids using cultural property for military purposes and targeting it, save for imperative military necessity. Its First Protocol forbids exporting cultural property from occupied territory and requires its return at the end of hostilities; its Second Protocol, of 1999, strengthens protection and individual criminal liability. Protected property can be marked with the Blue Shield emblem. For the insurance market, which excludes war, the convention is the only legal protection for collections exposed to conflict, and it grounds claims for the return of works that later reappear on the market.
Adopted on May 14, 1954, the convention has been invoked by Ukraine since 2022 to demand the return of works removed from museums in occupied territories, including those of the Kherson art museum in November 2022.
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