Armenia, Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and San Marino as well as Mexico, one of the Organisation’s observer states, were the first to sign Council of Europe Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property, Public Radio of Armenia reports.
The convention is open for signature to any country in the world.
Adopted in the framework of the Council of Europe’s action to fight terrorism and organised crime, the new convention seeks to stop the looting of antiquities and their trafficking through the art markets. It makes a criminal offence their unlawful excavation, importation and exportation, acquisition and placing on the market, and the falsification of documents in this context.