"One does research prior to acquisition. If confident, even without documentation or without all questions answered [that the piece has not been illegally acquired]," Cuno says, "then one can acquire [a piece] provided that one continues to do research and make public one's acquisition of that object."

Cuno says this process of "due diligence" for an item which is not documented can include consulting publications that list looted artifacts or discussing the item with colleagues.

The final decision on whether a piece--documented or not--will appear in an exhibit is Cuno's, as director of HUAM.

"The curators should be party to the policy, but ultimately it's the director's [decision]," Winter says.

Recently Cuno joined a newly-formed task force of the Association of Art Museum Directors that will investigate claims on art allegedly plundered by the Nazis during World War II.

Congress has also begun to put pressure on the art community to tighten its acquisition practices. Last week, the House Banking Committee held hearings on the laws regulating the import of artworks.

Several members of the task force testified before the committee, and promised to increase their efforts to locate art plundered during the war.

However, some legislators want to go further. Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is considering introducing legislation that would require museums to fully research a piece's background prior to acquisition, according to the Boston Globe.

Looting

Looting, or the illegal acquisition of antiquities, is "an ongoing problem throughout the world," according to Pearsall.

The major problem with looting, from the archaeologist's point of view, is that it destroys the information that comes along with an artifact.

"When archaeologists dig a site, they don't just dig to record artifacts," says Vincas P. Steponaitis '76, the president of the Society for American Archaeology and a professor of anthropology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Steponaitis explains that the context and setting of an artifact are necessary in order to interpret it.

"Looters dig only for the artifacts; they completely destroy the context," Steponaitis says.

A 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) convention set standards concerning the plundering of cultural property.