The Protection of Abandoned Cultural Heritage in Spain (original) (raw)

Cultural Heritage and Spanish Private Law

Santander Art & Culture Law Review, 2018

This article offers a brief analysis of the public/private law divide in relation to the legal protection of cultural heritage in Spain. First, it provides an overview of the Spanish public law regime for the protection of historic and artistic heritage, comprising the list of categories of cultural goods. Second, the article endeavours to explain the impact of this public law regime on property rights. In particular, it explores and substantiates how and to what extent the general interest of the community in safeguarding and preserving cultural heritage, provided by public law regulations and enforced by public administration, may limit the property rights of private owners of cultural assets.

Pondering Dysfunctions in Heritage Protection: Lessons from the Theft of the Codex Calixtinus

The Codex Calixtinus , the 12th-century manuscript at the heart of Spain's Camino de Santiago, was stolen, hidden for a year, and then found in a trash can wrapped in newsprint and plastic. The extraordinary theft highlights some dysfunctions in cultural heritage thought and practice. Explored here are questions about exemplars and copies, ambiguities in heritage protection law, problems of proprietorship and commercialization of heritage goods, and administrative negligence in the management of heritage assets. The focus is on Spain, but the questions have broad relevance. This article concludes that one way to better protect movable heritage assets like the codex is to recognize them as part of a broad heritage landscape in which their loss or mismanagement means damage to an entire ecosystem of culture and history.

LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF THE SPANISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE

2022

The enactment of the current Spanish Constitution in 1978 caused a substantial change in the territorial structure of the Spanish State. It was organized into seventeen autonomous political-administrative bodies with legislative capacities in various matters, including the protection of historical and cultural heritage. The transfer of this competence to the autonomous institutions is contemplated by the current Spanish Constitution in article 148.1.16, and developed by Law 16/1985 on Spanish Historical Heritage, enacted in accordance with the provisions of article 149.1 and 2 of the Spanish Constitution. Several regulations are currently in force relating to artistic and cultural heritage, both at state and regional level, which require prior administrative authorization to carry out any archaeological intervention. This legislation has led to the appearance of various administrative control systems, as well as an increase in emergency archaeological interventions that has generated debates on various aspects of these actions and the value of archaeological finds.

Fighting against the archaeological looting and the illicit trade of antiquities in Spain

During the seventies, archaeological looting, of both land and underwater sites, not only was widespread in Spain, but also went unpunished. This situation stemmed from a lack of effective administrative and criminal legislation, human resources to combat the plague, and educational policies warning of how harmful such practices were, in spite of damning reports in the media and the social alarm raised in certain professional and political fields. The new political and social phase that began with the Constitution of 1978 has enabled the country to overcome this situation in three ways: first, by passing new, more appropriate administrative and criminal laws to help combat looting and illicit trade; second, through the creation of new regional governments (the autonomous communities) able to enforce these laws, and which have hired archaeologists specializing in cultural heritage management. The fight against the criminal aspect of looting and the illicit trade of antiquities has also been intensified by the creation of police and prosecuting bodies dedicated to the area of cultural heritage, among others. Last, educational policies have been put in place to help increase social awareness of the importance of our cultural heritage and the global loss its destruction represents. In this article we will present the first two points that have improved the initial situation as regards archaeological looting and the illicit trade of looted goods.

Creation and interpretation of the concept of Cultural Heritage in the Spanish Law

Law Between Creation and Interpretation, 2023

In this paper we are going to talk and discuss about the creation of the concept of “cultural heritage” in the Spanish Law and the characters of the legal definition of cultural property or cultural heritage goods, according with the legal system stablished by the 1978 Constitution. We will comment some cases of the Spanish Jurisprudence where the concept is developed.

Tangible and intangible heritage in Spanish law

Protection of tangible and intangible cultural heritage - contemporary development directions, 2020

This article offers a brief analysis of the regulation of cultural heritage in Spain, under the 1985 and 2015 acts. First, it provides an overview of the Spanish law and refers to tangi- ble and material goods. Second, it explains the introduction of ethnographic heritage as a category that is also a starting point for the legal treatment of the concept of intangible heritage. Finally, it introduces some reflections about the existing differences between both concepts and the need for different regulations.

"Site Looting and the Illicit Trade of Archaeological Objects in Andalusia, Spain."

Culture Without Context. The Newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre 7, 17-24, 2000

In Spain, the existence of a well-established legal deterrent to the looting of archaeological sites dates back only to 1985, when the Law of the Spanish Historical Heritage was promulgated. Since the transfer in the early 1980s of all responsibilities in cultural resource management from the Spanish central government to the regional authorities, the relevant law in Andalusia has been the Law of the Historical Heritage of Andalusia, passed by the regional parliament in July 1991. Using data compiled from the ARQUEOS database, developed and maintained by the Documentation Centre of the Andalusian Institute of the Historical Heritage (IAPH), as well as examples taken from the specialised bibliography and the media, we examine the current situation of site looting and illicit trade of archaeological objects in Andalusia.