Overview
On July 18, 2021, US Customs and Border Protection published in the Federal Register an extension (and amendment) of import restrictions on cultural property under a bilateral agreement between the United States and the Republic of Cyprus (the "US-Cyprus Bilateral Agreement"). The restrictions prohibit the importation of certain Pre-Classical and Classical archaeological objects, and Byzantine and Post-Byzantine ecclesiastical and ritual ethnological materials that originated in the Republic of Cyprus – except in exceptional circumstances.
The US-Cyprus Bilateral Agreement was originally signed on July 12, 2002, and has been extended and/or amended on five prior occasions. This current extension sustains the existing import restrictions through July 13, 2027. The extension also amends the prior list of items designated for import restriction (i.e., Designated List) to reflect the inclusion of additional categories of archaeological and ethnological material. The scope of the Designated List includes various archaeological material from Cyprus ranging in date from approximately the 11th millennium B.C. to A.D. 1770, and ethnological material from Cyprus ranging in date from approximately the 4th century A.D. to A.D. 1878.
The Federal Register notice implicates elements of the federal government's robust authority to restrict the importation of various pieces of artwork, antiquities and cultural property. The authority found at 19 U.S.C § 2606, sets out part of its authority for enforcing the import restrictions implicated in the notice. A list of each country maintaining similar agreements enforceable under 19 U.S.C § 2606 and a general description of the artwork and cultural antiquities subject to restriction is provided at Title 19 of the Code of Federal Regulations (19 C.F.R. § 12.104g(a)).