Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime

A UNESCO Chair Researching the Heritage Crimes of the Present and Future
  • Blue and white logo that said UNESCO Chair and has the UNESCO primary logo on it

    New and emerging heritage crimes occur beyond the boundaries of detection, deterrence, and imagination. 

    We ask: what comes next? 
     


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  • News and Events

    Tuba Dinosaur Track Site

    Journal Special Issue Call for Papers: Natural Heritage as Cultural Property: legal and social dimensions to the collection, display, and sale of natural history specimens

    Edited by Paul Stewens and Donna Yates

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    Fossil

    In the media: who do fossils belong to?

    A CORDIS article asks who fossils belong to, drawing on Yates and her TRANSFORM project.

     

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    Ecole du louvre provenance

    Donna Yates at École du Louvre's UNESCO Chair inaugural symposium

    Held in Paris in June 2026.

     

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    NVC Conference session sign with title on it

    Team Members Present at NVC Conference on Art Crime

    Held on 11 May 2026 at the Dutch Royal Library, The Hague.

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  • Publications and Outputs

    Low End Book Cover

    Illusions of Rarity and Value in Competing Megalodon Tooth Markets

    Chapter in Low-End Markets for Art and Cultural Goods

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    Cover of the journal History of the Humanities. The title of the journal is shown on top of a historic painting of an arm.

    Spiritualism in Plaster: Philosophy, Archaeology, and Figurative Practices in Félix Ravaisson’s Study of the Venus de Milo

    Journal Paper in History of the Humanities

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    Cover of the journal IJHS

    The Legal Classification of Hominin Fossils: Lessons from the Broken Hill Skull

    Journal Paper in: International Journal of Heritage Studies

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    Law of the arts logo: the words on a white background

    Brazil Reclaims a Dinosaur: Irritator challengeri and the Restitution of Trafficked Fossils

    Blogpost on Law of the Arts, 12 May 2026

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  • The UNESCO Chair in Cultural Heritage and Emerging Crime is held by Prof. Donna Yates and hosted by Maastricht University