The Sale and Purchase of Antiquities on the Internet is Prohibited

The head of Iran's Cultural Heritage Protection Unit announced that the sale and purchase of antiquities online is "prohibited," and websites offering historical artifacts will be filtered. According to a report on Wednesday, June 14, from the official news agency of Iran's judiciary, Mizan News, Amir Rahmatollahi added that under the law, buying and selling antiquities is considered a "crime" and is subject to legal prosecution. He stated that for this reason, legal action has been taken against websites that publish advertisements for the sale of antiquities and historical items, and these sites will be filtered. With the increase in online shopping in Iran, some websites have also put antiquities up for sale in cyberspace. Additionally, some stolen antiquities or those obtained through illegal excavations are sold in these advertisements without the buyer's knowledge. Rahmatollahi warned about fraud and the posting of "false advertisements" in this context, stating that people should know that "any purchase or sale of culturally valuable historical items is prohibited, and the protection unit will take action against offenders if observed or reported." However, he noted that due to the "large number" of these websites, it is not possible to monitor all of them or take action to block them. The head of Iran's Cultural Heritage Protection Unit also added that his organization has filed complaints against individuals and websites that "openly advertise and sell items obtained from excavations" and is working to "recover items and return them to museums." In another part of his statements, he mentioned that there is a "legal gap" regarding dealing with advertisers selling treasure-hunting devices online, making it impossible to take legal action against such individuals. He reported that recently, a defendant in a related case was released despite the unit's complaint, due to this legal gap. According to the law, "excavating land and searching for national artifacts is exclusively the right of the government, which may directly act based on this right or delegate it to scientific institutions, individuals, or companies. The delegation of this right by the government must also be based on a special permit that determines the location, scope, and duration of the excavation." As a lawyer told the Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper, "from the perspective of the Iranian legislator, only the buying and selling of antiquities is considered a crime, while merely possessing or transporting them is not a crime, provided that such transportation does not lead to the export of cultural heritage outside the country."