Heritage Friday 2021 will be held on Friday the 19th of November – 11:00 – 15:30 – at the National Museum of Denmark.

This year, Blue Shield Denmark focuses on illicit trafficking of cultural property and the measures that are taken around the world to mitigate these offenses.

Heritage Friday 2021 marks, with a one-year delay, the 50th anniversary of the “UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property”.  Although trade with illicitly acquired cultural property has been criminalized for the last 50 years, smuggling and sale of such cultural assets and antiques is today the third largest source of criminal economic activity. This trade coexists with other organized crimes and is part the conflict economy in areas of armed encounters. It takes place in a gray market where gaps in the legislation of different countries are exploited, or where the objects are money laundered and then resold. Furthermore, the trade is difficult to monitor as today it has moved from traditional auction houses and antique dealers to the internet with its many platforms.

Please be advised that you must show a negative Corona test or double vaccination certificate at the entrance to the museum.