Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972)

Parliament of India
  • An Act to regulate the export trade in antiquities and art treasures, to provide for the prevention of, smuggling of, and fraudulent dealings in, antiquities, to provide for the compulsory acquisition of antiquities and art treasures for preservation in public places and to provide for certain other matters connected therewith or incidental or ancillary thereto.
Enacted byParliament of India
Assented to byV. V. Giri
Assented to9 September 1972
Commenced5 April 1976 (except for Sikkim)
1 June 1979 (Sikkim)
Amends
Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958
Repeals
Antiquities (Export Control) Act, 1947
Amended by
Antiquities and Art Treasures (Amendment) Act, 1976
Related legislation
Antiquities and Art Treasures Rules, 1973
Status: In force

The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 was created in accordance with the UNESCO 1970 Convention to regulate the internal and external dealing in antiquities in India. Its purpose is to prevent the permanent export of India's treasures so as to preserve the country's cultural wealth.[1][2][3]

  1. ^ Pachauri, S. K. (2002). "15. Plunder of cultural and art treasures – the Indian experience" (PDF). In Brodie, Neil; Walker Tubb, Kathryn (eds.). Illicit Antiquities. London: Routledge. pp. 268–269. ISBN 0-203-16546-2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 November 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  2. ^ Gupta, Vinay Kumar (July 2019). "Retrieval of Indian Antiquities: Issues and Challenges". Art, Antiquity & Law. 24 (2): 101–124. Retrieved 4 November 2023 – via Academia.edu.
  3. ^ Shroff, Cyril; Shroff, Rishabh (1 February 2015). "India's antiquities laws: an antiquated relic?". Trusts & Trustees. 21 (1–2): 75–85. doi:10.1093/tandt/ttu221.