Document printed from the ICRC web site on the 25.11.2009
Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The Hague, 14 May 1954.
Article
Chapter I : General provisions regarding protection
Art. 1 - Definition of Cultural Property

    Definition of Cultural Property

    Article 1. For the purposes of the present Convention, the term "cultural property" shall cover, irrespective of origin or ownership:
    (a) movable or immovable property of great importance to the cultural heritage of every people, such as monuments of architecture, art or history, whether religious or secular; archaeological sites; groups of buildings which, as a whole, are of historical or artistic interest; works of art; manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest; as well as scientific collections and important collections of books or archives or of reproductions of the property defined above;
    (b) buildings whose main and effective purpose is to preserve or exhibit the movable cultural property defined in sub-paragraph (a) such as museums, large libraries and depositories of archives, and refuges intended to shelter, in the event of armed conflict, the movable cultural property defined in subparagraph (a);
    (c) centres containing a large amount of cultural property as defined in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b), to be known as "centres containing monuments".