Regulation is designed to protect against smuggling and cut off a source of terrorist financing

The European Council yesterday adopted new rules to clamp down on the illicit trafficking in cultural goods, including a requirement for import licences on artefacts more than 250 years old.

The EU says the regulation is designed to “ensure the effective protection against illicit trade in cultural goods and against their loss or destruction” and to serve “the prevention of terrorist financing and money laundering through the sale of pillaged cultural goods to buyers in the union.”

Read the complete article here