United States and Morocco Sign Cultural Property Agreement

Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
January 14, 2021

Today, U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco David T. Fischer and Morocco’s Minister of Culture Othmane El Ferdaous signed a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding that protects Moroccan cultural property.

This agreement is an example of the United States’ enduring work with Morocco to combat cultural property trafficking and to preserve heritage items by allowing the U.S. to establish import restrictions on certain categories of Morocco’s cultural property.  The agreement also gives U.S. law enforcement the ability to repatriate trafficked cultural objects back to Morocco while fostering the interchange of Moroccan cultural heritage with U.S. institutions.

The United States has been unwavering in its commitment to protect and preserve cultural heritage around the world and to restrict trafficking in cultural property, which is often used to fund terrorist and criminal networks.  This cultural property agreement with Morocco was negotiated by the State Department under the U.S. law implementing the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.  The United States has cultural property agreements with countries around the world, as well as emergency import restrictions on cultural property from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.