Trafficking and Conflict: Challenges for Cultural Heritage Today
ENIGMA
Dates: 25 November 2025
Location: Museum Kunst & Geschiedenis Brussels, Belgium
Organisers: Blue Shields Belgium, ICOM Wallonie-Bruxelles, ENIGMA, Royal Museums of Art and History, and UNESCO Flanders.
Description: This in-person event aspires to foster shared reflection on the professional, ethical, and human responsibilities of heritage experts and institutions. It is aimed at professionals in the heritage sector, from libraries, archives and museums, as well as at scholars, students, and all those interested in the protection and safeguarding of heritage.
The morning session is dedicated to current developments in the fight against trafficking of cultural heritage, highlighting the expertise from Belgian law enforcement, ICOM International, EU policy and research projects focusing on issues related to looting, theft, and the movements of cultural goods and artefacts.
As war ravages Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, destroying and threatening tangible and intangible cultural heritage, European museums, archives and libraries are reminded of the vulnerability of their collections.
The afternoon session is a response to the growing demand in the Belgian heritage sector for knowledge exchange on the safeguarding of movable heritage in times of armed conflict, with shared perspectives and lessons learnt from the recent and more distant past. Blue Shield Belgium also proudly presents the Belgian premiere of the award-winning docudrama The Oath of Cyriac (France/Syria, 2021), on the emergency evacuation of the collections of the Aleppo National Museum.
