Unlawful transfer?. The provisions of the 1970 UNESCO Convention, the product of lengthy nego- tiations, are very generally, and even, at times, vaguely, phrased. As a con- sequence, various interpretations can co-exist, such as what exactly falls under the definition of ‘illicit’ import, export or transfer.39 This is important, as Ukraine’s request for return was based on the argument that the unlawfulness of the situation is created by the non-return of the objects once the export licences had expired, while the way the objects had been sent abroad on a short-term loan and had entered the Netherlands was perfectly legal. Under Ukraine’s implementing legislation for the UNESCO Convention, the expiration of an export licence results in an ‘illicit’ situation: Those cultural values, which were temporarily exported from Ukraine and were not returned in the period provided by the contract, are considered [to have been] unlawfully exported.40
