Report Title:

Antiquities; Prohibited Transfer

Description:

Prohibits the sale of native Hawaiian antiquities except to qualified museums and repositories. Establishes civil and criminal penalties for selling or purchasing an antiquity in violation of the law. Establishes a registry of antiquities acquired before prohibition takes effect. Presumes unregistered antiquities were acquired in violation of prohibition.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2462

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO HISTORIC PRESERVATION.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the native Hawaiian culture is an important facet and integral component of our collective state history. Because the pre-contact Hawaiians had no written documents, their artifacts, antiquities, and material culture are doubly precious as clues that provide important insight to their daily lives and history. Native Hawaiian antiquities have been increasingly looted from archeological and cultural sites and are easily found on auction websites, thus increasing their monetary value, desirability, and transfer out of the State. Due to these various external factors, much of the native Hawaiian material culture has been destroyed, traded, sold, or lost, leaving fewer examples of these most precious resources, which are important to the citizenry of this State and especially important to native Hawaiian children as a legacy and link to their past.

The legislature further finds that much of the material culture of the native Hawaiian people, even utilitarian objects used on a daily basis, hold much artistic and cultural significance to modern-day descendants, having been produced by often unparalleled skill and through laborious methods by the hands of kupuna. These antiquities should not be classified as abandoned or lost property, but held in trust by the State of Hawaii for the descendants and people of Hawaii.

The purpose of this Act is to confine the sale of native Hawaiian antiquities, found after the effective date of this Act, exclusively to qualified museums and repositories.

SECTION 2. Chapter 6E, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new sections to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§6E-A Sale of antiquities restricted. (a) No person may sell or purchase any antiquity after the effective date of this Act, except for sale to, or purchase by, a qualified museum.

(b) Any person selling or purchasing an antiquity in violation of this section shall be subject to a civil fine equal to the amount paid for the antiquity or $10,000, whichever is greater. The antiquity shall be forfeited to the State. The attorney general shall enforce this section.

(c) Any person selling or purchasing an antiquity in violation of this section shall be guilty of a:

(1) Class B felony, if the value of the item exceeds $20,000;

(2) Class C felony, if the value of the item is between $300 and $20,000; or

(3) Misdemeanor, if the value of the item is less than $300.

(d) As used in this section, "antiquity" means any artifact:

(1) That is over fifty years old; and

(2) Is native Hawaiian in origin.

"Artifact" means any object produced or shaped by human craft, especially a tool, weapon, ornament, or utensil of cultural, archaeological, or historical interest.

"Qualified museum" means a museum or repository recognized by the state historic preservation officer as a nonprofit entity open to the public, the primary mission of which is the preservation of items of cultural and historic significance.

§6E-B Registry of antiquities. (a) Each person who owns a native Hawaiian antiquity shall register it under this section. The state historic preservation officer shall maintain a registry of antiquities, in consultation with the University of Hawaii, the Bishop Museum, and office of Hawaiian affairs, which shall contain, at a minimum:

(1) The name, address, and phone number of the person who owns the antiquity;

(2) A description of the antiquity, with a photograph; and

(3) The source and, if known, provenance of the item.

There shall be no charge for registering the antiquity.

(b) The state historic preservation officer shall widely publicize the existence of the registry. Two years after the effective date of this Act, all antiquities not registered shall be presumed to have been obtained in violation of section 6E-A and subject to the prohibition on sale in section 6E-A."

SECTION 3. In codifying the new sections added by section 2 of this Act, the revisor of statutes shall substitute appropriate section numbers for the letters used in designating the new sections in this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

SECTION 5. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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