Combating Illicit Trade: Due Diligence Guidelines for Museums, Libraries and Archives on Collecting and Borrowing Cultural Material

The guidelines aim to assist museums, libraries and archives when considering the acquisition by purchase, gift or bequest of items of cultural property. They contain due diligence procedures to determine whether a proposed acquisition or loan of cultural objects is ethically and legally acceptable.

The guidelines were developed following discussions at the Seminar for Museum Directors held at DCMS on 19 November 2003. The guidelines were drafted by a sub-group of the Illicit trade Advisory Panel made up of representatives from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, the Museums Association, the National Art Collections Fund, the British Museum, the V&A, the Ashmolean Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Society of Antiquaries of London, York Museums Trust, the Manchester Museum, the British Library and the National Archives.

In addition, these guidelines have been endorsed by The Museums Association, the National Art Collections Fund, The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (including the MLA/V&A Purchase Fund), The National Fund for Acquisitions (Scotland) and the Society of Museum Archaeologists. The funding bodies expect museums to adhere to these guidelines when applying for funding for acquisitions.

Combating Illicit Trade: Due Diligence Guidelines for Museums, Libraries and Archives on Collecting and Borrowing Cultural Material (PDF 418kb).

These documents are available online in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.

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