These essays emanate from a series of Polish conferences

There is a basic problem in suggesting that earned income can keep a museum afloat

Now the UK is a signatory, it must consider how best to conserve its cultural heritage should an invasion ever occur

The Bush administration and its supporters now have their guns trained on social policy

Built without a single nail, the Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour will have to be taken apart in order to save it

President Aznar of Spain stated that cultural protectionism was “the refuge of a country whose culture is in decline”

Accord reflects fear of American cultural imperialism

Congress is expected to approve a $71.4 million payment to Unesco, the first US contribution in 18 years

Mayor Bloomberg has set up a Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission which, he says, will help non-profit organisations

The key to the mayor’s plan is “diversity”

Iraq’s history is our history too

Why “cultural diversity” arts policies are condescending and do not enlarge the understanding of other cultures

Replicas are not necessarily second-rate Disneyfications, says conservator John Larson

The Federal Finance Committee aims to stop financial abuses at US museums

Despite curators’ protests, the French senate has pushed through a Raphael exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris

Politics, again, involve Anda Rottenberg

The paintings seized by the Nazis, then the Communist government, may yet remain with the state

The deputy editorship of Die Zeit newspaper and a better pension prove too tempting for Michael Naumann

Work is underway, but worst hit town Vukovar still 'deserted'

There are an estimated three million undiscovered shipwrecks scattered throughout the world’s oceans. UNESCO is calling for a global treaty to protect them. Salvors say it is unrealistic and unworkable.

Anger at appointment of collector who imports the very objects the committee tries to keep out

The government wants to set precise goals for the number of ethnic minority visitors to museums and make funding dependent on achieving them

Very little support for the art scene from the tax system and, as in Germany, an outdated distinction between “original” works of art, subject to 9% VAT, and multiples (prints, digital works, photography etc), subject to 19%

The recent, widely publicised dispute over the provenance of two paintings by Egon Schiele, withdrawn last year from a loan exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art on the grounds of contested ownership, offered a vivid illustration of the problems facing museums and private collectors who may find themselves having to prove good title to their possessions

Delays over approving Giacometti Foundation suggest deliberate obstruction, so the only option remaining will be to hand over the collection to the state

An art dealer reads the small-print of a new Italian government regulation that enables its officials to “notify” works even when on temporary importation

Eugene Victor Thaw on the transformation of tribal art

A survey touching all the bases: losses, recoveries, legal debates, cultural restitution