The United Nations Association of New York presents
Targeted for Theft and Destruction:
Art and Cultural Heritage at Risk in Times of Armed Conflict
with
Jane Levine
Lecturer in Art and Cultural Heritage Law
Columbia Law School
___
Tuesday | 9 June 2026 | 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Admission FREE
Permanent Mission of the Principality of Monaco to the UN
866 United Nations Plaza
Suite 520
New York, NY 10017
6:00 p.m. | Doors open
6:15 p.m. | Program
7:15 to 8 p.m. | Reception and networking
Registration for this event coming soon
In October 2025, thieves scaled the walls of the Louvre in broad daylight and made off with approximately $100 million in French crown jewels. Weeks later, masterworks by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse vanished from an Italian museum in under three minutes. Brazen art heists like these are not new yet they seem to capture endless media attention, sometimes glamorized through fictional Hollywood productions.
But there is a darker side to crimes involving art and cultural heritage. Cultural treasures face their gravest threat during war and armed conflict, from Napoleon's plundering of Europe to Nazi looting, which gave rise to the landmark 1954 Hague Convention, the first international treaty devoted exclusively to cultural heritage protection. The looting of the Iraq Museum, the destruction across Syria, the targeting of religious shrines in Mali, and Russia's assault on Ukraine's cultural and religious heritage all tell the same story: the legal frameworks exist, but the will to enforce them remains fragile. In the current crisis in the Middle East, cultural sites are acutely at risk.
Jane Levine has spent her career working on cultural heritage protection, as a federal prosecutor, as Chief Global Compliance Counsel at Sotheby's, and as a Presidential appointee to the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee. This evening, she will be joined in conversation by a representative of UNESCO, whose landmark 1970 Convention remains the cornerstone of the international effort to combat illicit trafficking in cultural property. Levine brings a rare perspective: what the law can do, where it falls short, and what is at stake when we fail to protect the art that connects us to our shared humanity.
____
Before you join us for this fascinating event on June 9, we invite you to explore the UNESCO Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects. This online experience is the world's first immersive platform dedicated to stolen and missing cultural heritage. More than 250 looted objects from 46 countries, rendered in 2D and 3D — free and open to all. Visit the museum here.
Guest Speaker
Jane Levine
Jane Levine has extensive experience at the intersection of the international art market, art crime, and regulatory compliance. Jane is a former federal prosecutor who spent ten years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York where she conducted numerous jury trials and appeals, served as Special Trial Counsel to the FBI Art Crime Team, and prosecuted large economic crimes. Highlights of her time as a federal prosecutor include the recovery and return of a Jacopo de’ Barbari masterpiece stolen from a German castle post-WWII, the conviction of the ringleader in international forgery scheme involving hundreds of forged Impressionist paintings, and the first conviction in an internet art fraud/forgery scheme with dozens of victims.
After leaving the SDNY, Jane moved into the commercial art world at Sotheby’s where she spent thirteen years holding responsibilities as Chief Global Compliance Counsel and Head of Government Affairs. As a member of the Sotheby’s Executive Management team Jane provided leadership and oversight in the formation and expansion of a world class Compliance and Ethics department covering offices located in forty different countries. Under Jane’s leadership Sotheby’s adopted a comprehensive global compliance program that successfully protected the company and its employees from adverse consequences of all kinds. Jane was also responsible for managing risk and conducting internal investigations related to conflicts of interest, market and auction conduct, money laundering, fraud, forgery, cultural heritage claims, and title disputes, among others.
Jane was appointed by President Obama to serve on the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations concerning cultural property agreements between the United States and other State parties to the 1970 UNESCO Convention. She currently serves as a member of the Board for US Committee for the Blue Shield working to safeguard cultural heritage around the globe in areas of military conflict and natural disaster. Jane has been teaching Art and Cultural Heritage Law at Columbia Law School for the past twenty years and is frequently invited to speak as an authority on art law and cultural heritage panels and conferences. She is also on the Advisory Board for NYU Law School’s Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement, and is a founding board member of Beyond #MeToo, a working group on corporate governance, compliance and risk.