A.D. The agreement was signed by Helena Finn, acting assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, and Italian Ambassador Ferdinando Salleo. It is to take effect on publication in the Federal Register next week. At that time, State Department sources said, the list of categories of objects will be published. We also anticipate a reduction in illegal excavations, and therefore a higher conservation of our heritage. At the same time, Italian sources said their officials would be more willing to grant export certificates for widely available items, amassed by the government and stashed out of sight.
Dealers say Italian officials never issue certificates.
I would be conservative saying there are tens of millions of dollars stored in the basements of museums of no interest to scholars. I don't think they should sell antiquities. The agreement was signed 15 months after the Italian government first petitioned the State Department's Cultural Property Advisory Committee because of widespread looting. Melandri estimated that 30 to 50 percent of illegally exported Italian antiquities end up in the United States. The committee made its restriction recommendations in June, and U.S. and Italian drafters finished writing the memorandum in time for the Clinton administration to sign it as one of its final official acts.