Legal Committee Report

Legal Committee Report - Winter 2019-2020

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To all ATADA Members, Museum Associates, Private Collectors and Supporters of the preservation and study of tribal arts around the world:

Thank you for making ATADA the premier Native American and international tribal art organization in the US. More than ever, ATADA’s voice is being heard in Washington and around the country. Last year, you helped us to protect the interests of small businesses, art fairs, auction houses, small museums and private collectors. You supported our efforts to make common cause with colleagues in the wider art world. You helped us to educate legislators and the public about the dangers of ill-considered laws, treaties and agreements that would sequester all art in the country of origin and infringe on the privacy rights on honest citizens.

2019 and early 2020 have been a very active time for our organization. As we predicted, a new, even more restrictive STOP Act was introduced in 2019 and continues to be a major issue in 2020. New money laundering legislation that would place a heavy financial burden on small businesses and specifically directed against the art and antiquities trade passed the House of Representatives in 2019 and is now being taken up in the Senate. In 2019, we successfully challenged a Montana bill that would have meant the loss of businesses and private collections across that state. 

We have focused our efforts on providing legislators with positive, fact-based solutions. Our work has resulted in the defeat or delay of damaging legislation on federal and state levels. At the same time, we have expanded ATADA’s extremely successful Voluntary Returns Program. Our community-based outreach to tribes stresses partnership with legitimate businesses to protect tribal resources and cultural heritage, advocating together for increased federal support for indigenous peoples.

ATADA is once again fighting the good fight for ethical and responsible trade in tribal and ethnographic art, for preservation, and for access for all. We need your continued support to protect you, your business and your collections in the coming year. Here is just some of what we accomplished in 2019!


  • MONTANA BILL HB637

    In March 2019, ATADA successfully argued against an attempt to pre-empt private ownership rights in Montana. A legislator had introduced a bill that made it illegal to “purposely or knowingly buy, sell, exchange, distribute, market, or otherwise conduct a commercial transaction for profit that involves an object of cultural patrimony or a sacred object.” Cultural patrimony included virtually any Native American object that had “ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to an Indian tribe, group, or culture.” The bill gave an Indian-majority burial board, previously tasked with dealing with unmarked graves and other finds of human remains, the job of deciding whether items, including private property of collectors and inventory of businesses, were sacred or inalienable cultural patrimony, and deciding whether current owners or tribal claimants owned them. It did not allow outside experts or appeal.

    The bill, HB 637, could have made the trade and collecting of Indian art and artifacts a minefield for dealers, collectors, and museums, in which they would face severe fines or jail time simply for buying or selling items long in circulation. Thanks to an intensive educational campaign about the harmful effects of the legislation, the bill failed to get out of committee.

  • MONEY LAUNDERING LEGISLATION

    In October 2019, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2514, imposing privacy-destroying Bank Secrecy Act anti-money laundering rules on “antiquities” dealers, without defining what an “antiquity” is. ATADA opposes the bill, which is supported by anti-art trade extremists in partnership with vendors who sell anti-money-laundering services. There is no evidence of U.S. money laundering through art. The bill is currently before the U.S. Senate, which is considering expanding it to cover all art dealers.

  • STOP ACT III

    A third version of the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony (STOP) Act, S.2165, H.R. 3846, was introduced in July 2019. Sponsors claimed the STOP Act would “prohibit the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking tribal cultural patrimony.”

    The 2019-2020 STOP Act requires a permit for export of items as low as $1 in value and keeps secret what can’t be exported. It can require every person carrying or shipping an Indian item out of the U.S., including small items purchased by tourists, to submit a photograph and a form through a federal system that will have to be created from scratch. Each item will be subject to tribal review by the 568 federally registered tribes, Hawaiian organizations and Alaskan villages. The review system will operate in secret, and without any time limit.

    Because the bill can include commercial items, it will force people to guess whether they need to apply for a permit. There is not even a way to find out the reason for a seizure through a Freedom of Information Act request and there is little an exporter can do to appeal.

    In 2018, ATADA worked together with tribes and legislators to craft a bill that was designed to enhance protections for Native American cultural heritage. It established a practical system for export based around a U.S. Customs system already in place, enabled tribal review, punished violators, and at the same time, allowed businesses to self-certify low value items so the trade in Indian arts and crafts would not come to a halt. The legislative session ended with that bill still in committee and unfortunately, the 2019 STOP Act fails to consider the solutions agreed to in 2018.

    In early 2020, Board member Bob Gallegos met with 14 legislative offices to talk about ATADA’s community-based work and to show them how the latest version of the STOP Act would discourage all trade in Indian art, harm Native artisans, destroy value in legally-owned private property, and undermine due process.

  • AUCTIONS, ART FAIRS, SMALL BUSINESSES AND COLLECTORS AT RISK

    Anti-art trade activists continue to challenge private collecting, museum donation, and traditional sales venues in other ways. The Association on American Indian Affairs continues to seek tribal pre-approval of auction and other sales of antiques and even contemporary artworks such as kachinas and other carvings. ATADA’s bylaws establish protections against all unlawful sales and encourage the return of sacred items in current use to tribes, but ATADA policies also insist on federally-mandated constitutional and privacy rights of citizens to lawfully trade, collect, and donate artworks to museums.

    In all these ways and more, ATADA is working to keep you and your collections safe from government overreach. We’ve done great work but our resources are exhausted, and we need your help to meet these challenges.

You can make that difference right now!

Please contribute today!
Make your check payable to the ATADA Legal Fund and mail to:

David Ezziddine
Executive Director, ATADA
PO Box 157
Marylhurst, OR 97036

You can also support the Legal Fund by making an online contribution or by donating an item for auction! For more info, check out: atada.org/legal-fund

Questions? Contact David at director@atada.org
Visit www.atada.org/legal-issues to learn more about ATADA actions.

ATADA is a 501(c)(4) organization; gifts to ATADA and the ATADA legal fund are not tax deductible.

ATADA’s tax status enables it to work directly in Washington and elsewhere to make real change for your benefit.

Legal Committee Report - January 2019

Thank you for making ATADA the premier tribal art organization in the U.S.! We need your continued support to protect you, your business, and your collections in 2019. Here is just some of what we accomplished in 2018, thanks to you! 

  • We halted passage of STOP, the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act, S. 1400, for the 2018 legislative session. STOP made it official U.S government policy to encourage the return to tribes of all “significant objects, resources, patrimony, or other items… affiliated with a Native American Culture,” including jewelry, ceramics and other legal possessions.

Summer 2018 ATADA Newsletter - Available Now!

Cover Image: Hopi Salako Mana c.1900-1915 Height: 14 ¾ in. (37.5 cm) Courtesy Galerie Flak, Paris – © Photo : D. Voirin

Cover Image:
Hopi Salako Mana
c.1900-1915
Height: 14 ¾ in. (37.5 cm)
Courtesy Galerie Flak, Paris – © Photo : D. Voirin

What's new with the News?
We have developed a new format for the online version of the newsletter. We believe the new version is easier to read online as it auto-formats to any device.
Of course, there is still a .PDF download of the issue for off-line reading. 

The Newsletter will now be published twice per year, with both a Summer and Winter edition. Throughout the year we will be publishing additional articles, reports and analysis of current events on the ATADA Blog and social media. Be sure to subscribe to our blog and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

In This Issue...

Native Art Week
A conversation with Santa Fe Indian Market Director, Ira Wilson

The ATADA 2018 Online Show
Learn more about this inaugural show featuring fine Native American & Tribal art from trusted ATADA Dealers 

Europe in Spring: 
Patrick Mestdagh takes us on a tour of recent European Tribal art fairs

Legal Briefs: 
NAGPRA Repatriation Updates from Ron McCoy.

Legal Committee Report: 
STOP Act, Money Laundering, Tariffs and more...

No Free Appraisals
More in the importance of ethics and appraisals by Vanessa Elmore

ATADA Legal Committee 2017 Year-End Report

Throughout the year, the legal committee has been actively engaged in legislation impacting the tribal arts community. We raised serious legal, economic and practical questions about the 2017 Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act (STOP Act) currently before both Houses of Congress. We have worked with business community leaders, legislators, and tribal representatives to make clear the harms resulting from passage of the STOP Act.
 
Together with other organizations, ATADA submitted extensive legal testimony showing how the STOP Act would damage fundamental U.S. public policy. We are grateful that the Senate Indian Affairs Committee heard our concerns and did not move the STOP Act forward this year.
 
While we have accomplished much, we believe this will be an ongoing effort. We expect some version of the STOP Act to come before Congress in 2018. ATADA will remain actively engaged and will continue to advocate on behalf of the museum, dealer and collector community.
 
At the same time, we have taken concrete steps to ensure the highest standards of due diligence among our dealer and collector members. ATADA membership continues to stand for the lawful, ethical trade in tribal art.
 
We’ve increased public outreach and educational work. All our members should know about ATADA’s outstanding public programming, including our sponsorship of the 2017 Santa Fe symposium: “Understanding Cultural Property: A Path to Healing Through Communication,” and participation in public events at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe. We appreciated the excellent participation and attendance by members at these important events.  Additionally, the ATADA News, which is available to all online, has expanded its coverage of many key issues. 
 
ATADA looks forward to continuing its work with tribal partners in ongoing, grassroots actions, such as the ATADA Voluntary Returns program, to strengthen cooperation and mutual understanding. This year, the Voluntary Returns program facilitated the return of dozens of donated objects to Native communities, including a number of highly-significant spiritual objects. These efforts have generated a very positive response. They have been beneficial in fostering dialogue with tribal leaders and building trust that ATADA members will continue to honor the sensibilities of Native peoples.
 
Robert Gallegos heads the ATADA Voluntary Returns program. Please contact him with questions regarding the donation process and to facilitate a return.
He can be reached at 505-262-0620 or gallegos@nmia.com.
 
For all this work to continue, we must ask for your financial support.
Your contribution is instrumental as we continue to advocate for the rights of museums, dealers and collectors while promoting cultural awareness and community-based alternatives over intrusive, damaging legislation.
 
You can contribute online at www.atada.org/legal-fund , or contact David Ezziddine at director@atada.org for more information on how to help.

Sincerely yours,
The ATADA Legal Committee


Contributions to the ATADA Legal Fund are vital to continuing these efforts. Please consider making a contribution today. Thank you!