Code of Ethics

All CINOA member association must commit themselves to comply with or make its own members comply with the clear and respectable lines of conduct below.

It is more specifically as a reaction to the global will to face trafficking that is inherent to art objects and other illegal exports, that CINOA wishes to underscore and recommend to its member associations the following lines of conduct:

1. In view of the worldwide concern regarding trafficking and illegal export of stolen antique objects and works of art CINOA wishes that the profession of antique dealers and traders in works of art would be governed by the following principles:
2. The affiliated members of CINOA who happen to possess an object about which there are serious suspicions that it was illegally imported and of which the country of origin demands that it is returned within a reasonable amount of time, shall have to do everything that is possible to them according to the current laws to cooperate in returning the object to its country of origin. In the case of a purchase in good faith by the antique dealer, an amicable refundmay be agreed to.
3. The affiliated members of CINOA agree to comply with the laws on the protection of endangered species. They therefore agree not to trade in objects manufactured from materials that are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
4. The members will have to take all the necessary measures to detect stolen objects and refer, among others, to registers that are published to this effect and to use these judiciously.
5. The members cannot under any circumstance participate in transactions which to the best of their knowledge can result in money-laundering operations.
6. It is the duty of each one of the members to check the authenticity of the objects they possess.

The present code of ethics shall apply to allobjects that are negotiated on the market of antique objects and art objects.

Resolved at the General Meeting in Florence in 1987, amended in Stockholmon 26 June 1998 and in New Yorkon 11 May 2005.