On 8-9 October 2020, UNIDROIT hosted a celebratory international conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects.
The Conference was an event to take stock of the achievements of the Convention’s implementation thus far, raise awareness on the importance of uniform laws for the restitution and return of cultural property, reinforce synergies between the Convention and other international instruments, as well as to explore future steps in the projects aimed at promoting a favourable legal framework for the successful implementation of the Convention’s vocation, such as the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention Academic Project (UCAP).
Following the words of welcome of President Maria Chiara Malaguti and General Riccardi of the Command of the Carabinieri Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage representing Minister Dario Franceschini (Italian Ministry of Culture), the opening session featured speeches from UNIDROIT’s many partners in the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural property such as Webber Ndoro (Director General, ICCROM), 
H.E. Salim AlMalik (Director General, ICESCO), Ernesto Ottone Ramírez (Assistant Director-General for Culture, UNESCO), Corrado Catesi (Works of Art Unit Coordinator, INTERPOL), Alberto Garlandini (President ICOM). The rich programme of the conference featured a Keynote Speech on the Impact of Uniform Laws on the Protection of Cultural Property by Professor Toshiyuki Kono (Executive Vice President and Distinguished Professor, Kyushu University – President ICOMOS), and three sessions. 
Session I focussed on Cultural Objects – Protection and Circulation and was coordinated by Manlio Frigo (Full Professor of International Law, Milan Università degli Studi – Of Counsel BonelliErede), Session II on the Interplay and Interdependence of Rules and Cultural Instruments and moderated by Marina Schneider (Principal Legal Officer and Treaty Depositary, UNIDROIT), whereas Session III focussed on Challenges and Future Steps and was moderated by Ignacio Tirado (Secretary-General, UNIDROIT). 
This session gave an opportunity to discuss the proactive role of the civil society can and should play as well as the benefits for all of a enhanced and constructive collaboration with the art market. Joanna van der Lande (Antiquities Dealer’s Association) and Martin Wilson (Chief General Counsel at Phillips London) explained how the market evolved in the last 25 years and how important the means to enforce the law are.
Despite the pandemic, the hybrid format of the conference allowed the participation of about 300 participants from all over the World, and an array of prominent speakers and statements delivered by many States party and non-party to the Convention.
From left to right: Professor Ignacio Tirado, Secretary General of UNIDROIT, Professor Maria Chiara Malaguti, President of UNIDROIT; Mr Bennahi Lemrabott, Minister of Culture, Handicrafts and Relations with the Parliament of Mauritania; Mr Nami Salihy, Director of Heritage of Mauritania.
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Professor Iacopo Donati is the UNIDROIT/Bank of Italy Chair Holder and is mainly responsible for assisting in the Bank Insolvency project. He is Professor of Corporate and Insolvency Law at the University of Siena, and coordinates the research project ‘Pro.Re.Ba.’ (Proportionating rules on bank crisis prevention and management to the case of retail banks), which has received funding from the Italian Ministry of University. He has previously taught corporate law at the University of Venice ‘Ca’ Foscari’, at the University of Florence and at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’.
rtered Institute of Arbitrators (London). He further holds a post-graduate diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law. Allan is also a scholar from the Hague Academy of International Law.
rofessor Ignacio Tirado was appointed Secretary-General by the Governing Council at its 97th session, and officially took office on 27 August 2018. A national of Spain, Professor Tirado (Commercial, Corporate and Insolvency Law, Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain) holds a PhD from the Universities of Bologna and Autónoma de Madrid and an LLM from the University of London. Professor Tirado has been a Senior Legal Consultant at the World Bank’s Legal Vice-Presidency and Financial Sector Practice for more than nine years, having also consulted for the IMF on insolvency related matters as well as for the Asian Development Bank on commercial legal reform.
A Swedish national, Ms Lena Peters grew up in Italy where she attended an English school. In 1978 she took her Juris Kandidatexamen at Stockholm University followed by a Master of Laws from King’s College, London (1979). Since 1985 she has been with UNIDROIT, first as Research Officer, lastly as Principal Legal Officer, her main duties being Secretary to the Working Group for the Preparation of Principles of International Commercial Contracts, Secretary to the Study Group on Franchising, Secretary to the Committee of Governmental Experts on Franchising.She also collaborated on the project for the preparation of the ELI-Unidroit Model European Rules of Civil Procedure. She is currently Managing Editor of the Uniform Law Review and responsible for publications at UNIDROIT.
Marina Schneider is Principal Legal Officer and Treaty Depositary at UNIDROIT. She studied law at the University of Strasbourg (France) and Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne. She joined the UNIDROIT in 1987 and was involved in the elaboration and French versions of most UNIDROIT instruments since. She is in charge of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects and of the UNESCO-UNIDROIT Model Provisions on State Ownership of Undiscovered Cultural Objects. She is the author of the Explanatory Report of the 1995 Convention and many articles on the Convention and other international instruments in the field. Ms Schneider is also responsible for the project on private collections and for the UNIDROIT Convention Academic Project (UCAP). She is member of the Board of the International Society for Research on Art and Cultural Heritage Law (ISCHAL).
Professor of Commercial Law, Carlos III University of Madrid. Currently, Sir Roy Goode Scholar at UNIDROIT, Rome, 2021-2022. Chair of Excellence 2017-2018 at University of Oxford (Uc3m- Santander Program), affiliated to Harris Manchester College. Previously Distinguished Visiting Professor and fellow of a number of Academic Institutions. Arbitrator of Madrid Court of Arbitration. Member of ELI (European Law Institute) Council and Executive Committee. Member of the Expert Group of the European Commission on Liability and New Technologies and member of the Expert Group of the European Observatory of Platform Economy; the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law; the expert group of the Inclusive Global Legal Innovation Platform for Online Dispute Resolution – UNCITRAL and Hong Kong Department of Justice. Expert of the UNIDROIT Study Group on the MAC Protocol of the Cape Town Convention on International Interests. Delegate of Spain to UNIDROIT for the adoption of the Protocol, delegate of Spain in Working Group VI of UNCITRAL on secured transactions and in Working Group IV on Electronic Commerce. Member of UNIDROIT Working Groups on Enforcement and Warehouse Receipts.
William Brydie-Watson is an Australian lawyer who specialises in secured transactions law and private international law. Before joining UNIDROIT, William was a government lawyer in the Private International Law and International Arbitration section of the Australian Attorney-General’s Department, where he worked primarily on treaty negotiation and the implementation of private international law treaties in Australia. At UNIDROIT, he is primarily responsible for the implementation of the Mining, Agriculture and Construction (MAC Protocol) to the 2001 Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the development of a Model Law on Factoring. William also serves as UNIDROIT’s liaison with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and as manager of the Institute’s Scholarship and Internship Programme. Admitted to practice in New South Wales and the High Court of Australia, he has a Bachelor of Arts (honours), a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws from the Australian National University. William also lectures on International Secured Transactions Law at the Eotvos Lorand Faculty of Law in Budapest.