Arhivski vjesnik, Vol. 60 No. 1, 2017.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
On Restitution and Succession of Records of the Dubrovnik Provenance in the Context of the Development of the International and European Law
Ivan Filipović
Sažetak
On two occasions, in 1818 and 1833, a large number of the so-called Latin, Cyrillic and Turkish documents were transferred from the archives in Dubrovnik to the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, together with a few oriental and printed books that were later handed over to the Court Library. After 1918 the documents were given to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, ending up in Belgrade, from where they were returned back to Vienna in 1941 and after the end of the Second World War they were on several occasions restituted back to Dubrovnik. A recent discovery in Salzburg of one of these documents that were transferred to Vienna in 1918 was an occasion to consider a possible start of proceedings for its return. However, the development of the international law regarding the return of cultural assets in countries of their origin only made the position of the traditional custodians i.e. past capital cities firmer. The UNESCO convention from 1970 did not enable the return of the cultural assets that were transferred in the past, but it did create a framework for the restitution of the cultural objects that were illegally carried out after it came into force. A similar solution was adopted within the European Union, whose member states have the obligation to return ‘the national treasure’ that was illegally carried out after 1 January 1993. The international community did not create the standards for the succession of states regarding records, despite numerous historical sources of international law and the enormous efforts put into the Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of State Property, Archives and Debts from 1983. Still, it did serve as a pattern for Annex D ‘Archives’ of the Yugoslav Agreement on Succession Issues from 2001. It turned out that only the extraordinary historical circumstances, such as the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, present an opportunity for solving historical cultural replevins. In such circumstances the concluded Yugoslav-Austrian 1923 Archival Treaty admittedly did not enable handing over every single document of the Dubrovnik provenance, but in return many other historical records about the Dubrovnik area were handed over, even though they were originally of the Austrian provenance.
Ključne riječi
restitution, succession; cultural assets; international law; European law; successor states; Vienna Convention; Anex D
Hrčak ID:
194712
URI
Datum izdavanja:
4.9.2017.
Posjeta: 1.268 *