The return of illicitly exported cultural objects: the implementation of the 2014/60 Directive in France

This article deals with the implementation of Directive 2014/60/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State in France. The implementing act was adopted in February 2015 with general consensus amongst members of Parliament that it was necessary to improve the protection of cultural heritage within Europe (loi n° 2015 – 195, 20 February 2015). By contrast, the relevant sections of the code that require implementing regulation, such as the use of the Internal Market Information System (“IMI”) have not yet been adopted. The 2015 Act amended the relevant sections of the Cultural Heritage Code to include the new dispositions of the 2014 Directive, mostly word by word. Those sections, in their original drafting, implemented the 1993 Directive on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State which was inspired by both the 1970 UNESCO and 1995 UNIDROIT Conventions. This article successively examines three questions with the aim to assess the impact of the 2014 Directive on the protection of cultural objects in France: 1) it analyses to what extent the implementation of the 2014 Directive has improved the protection of French cultural objects; 2) it presents cases of restitution by France to other State Members as well as to countries outside the European Union; 3) it assesses the wider impact of the 2014 Directive on French civil law and cultural heritage law, in particular, the fundamental change caused by the requirement of due diligence on the presumption of good faith in favour of a good faith purchaser.