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14 Art Antiquity & L. 355 (2009)
The Return of the Venus of Cyrene

handle is hein.journals/artniqul14 and id is 371 raw text is: THE RETURN OF THE VENUS OF CYRENE Tullio Scovazzi t In recent years several important items of cultural heritage have been returned (or restituted or repatriated) to their State of origin. The Venus of Cyrene is a relevant instance in this regard.' On 31st August 2008, on the occasion of a visit by the Italian President of the Council of Ministers, Italy returned to Libya the statue of the Venus of Cyrene. This headless marble statue, dating back to the second century A.D., is a Roman copy of an original Hellenistic work that has never been found. It is also called the Venus 'Anadyomene', that is the Venus coming out of the waves. Found in 1913 by Italian troops near the ruins of the old Greek and Roman settlement of Cyrene, in 1915 the Venus was removed to Rome, where it was exhibited at the National Roman Museum. When the statue was found, Italy had already unilaterally annexed Libya (Tripolitania and Cyrenaica) that had previously belonged to the Ottoman Empire (Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912). In 1982 the property 'archaeological site of Cyrene' was inscribed on the World Heritage List. On 4th July 1998 Italy and Libya signed a joint declaration according to which Italy undertook to return all manuscripts, artefacts, documents, monuments and archaeological objects brought to Italy during and after the Italian colonisation of Libya, pursuant to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. On 1 1th_ 13th December 2000, during the first meeting of the Committee for the Italo- Libyan Partnership, the Venus of Cyrene was identified as one of the objects to be returned. By a decree of 1st August 2002, the Italian Ministry for Cultural Properties and Activities, in execution of the above international obligation, cancelled the statue from the objects belonging to the State demesne in order to allow its return to Libya. 1 Other instances are the return of the Axum obelisk from Italy to Ethiopia and the return of books of the National Library of Peru from Chile to Peru. * This paper is based on a paragraph of the study 'Diviser c'est d6tmire: Ethical Principles and Legal Rules in the Field of Return of Cultural Properties', presented by the author at the 2009 session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation. The author thanks UNESCO for the permission to reproduce it. ? Professor of international law, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy. 355