Professor and Director of The Norwegian Institute in Rome Christopher Prescott opened the panel discussing culture crime and destruction of heritage. Focusing on the last decade’s development in the Middle East, his main points were how military and terrorist groups use destruction of heritage sites as a weapon in their culture warfare. He also addressed how illicit trade with cultural heritage objects finances the same groups and that a legal system that could deal efficiently with this type of crimes is urgently needed.
State Secretary Marianne Hagen followed up with remarks on the effort that is put down internationally and nationally to prevent the same activities, and Associate Professor Håkon Roland pointed out the challenges he meets in his everyday work, encountering potential illicitly traded objects at The Museum of Cultural History (Kulturhistorisk museum), UiO.
Professor and Director of The Museum of Cultural History, Håkon Glørstad, opened the other panel addressing the inherent prospects in the Norwegian government’s focus on “tourism powered by culture”. An energetic discussion on cultural heritage and commercialization followed with Erik Lillebråten, Director of the foundation Norwegian Cultural Heritage (Norsk Kulturarv), Sveinung Ramstad, Director Innovation Norway of the Agder Counties, and chair of the panel, Liv Ramskjær, Norges Museumsforbund.
HEI would like to thank all panel participants, chairs and the audience for interesting discussions both during and after the panels.