1.     Determining the number of artistically and academically significant, privately-owned objects in the United States that are currently excluded from acquisition by US museums.

Even as the number of “orphan objects” – those that cannot by self-rule be acquired or accepted as loans by US museums – continues to grow, so does the need for accurate data on the nature and volume of such material in private collections and on the US market.  The CPRI will seek to develop a methodology that can help determine the number of significant orphan objects in a particular cultural/historical area, with a view toward establishing credible order-of-magnitude figures, over time, for all cultural/historical areas.  Initial conclusions will be published on the CPRI website by the end of 2009.  Comments will be invited.

2.     Developing different models for a registry that can be applied to privately-owned objects.

Several different forms of registries have been proposed in legal articles with extensive discussions of how a registry might preserve security and privacy, the degree of transparency/opacity they should have, the responsibilities of contributors to a registry, the potential interaction with law enforcement, and what sort of repose it might offer. The CPRI will pull together, explain and compare the models that have been proposed and others that may also serve the purpose of inclusive registry.   A draft report will be published on the CPRI website by the end of 2009.   Comments will be invited.

3.     Exploring ways to harmonize US laws and regulations that apply to transfer and ownership of antiquities.

Questions regarding both appropriate application and legal conflicts between different U.S. domestic laws, including the Cultural Property Implementation Act (CPIA) and the National Stolen Property Act (NSPA) and Archeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), have been the subject of many recent legal articles and discussions in the archaeological and collecting communities. CPRI will gather, cite, and republish these materials on the CPRI website and provide summaries and analyses useful to museums, educational institutions and the general public.

4.     Exploring the effect of source country policies on damage to archaeological sites and objects.

Source country policies toward development, private ownership, enforcement and export, among other matters, can have profound consequences for the integrity of archaeological sites and the preservation of individual objects.  Using a small, selected group of source countries, the CPRI will seek to gather and collate information on such policies, their effect on site damage, and possible remedies.  This will be an ongoing research project with milestones and publication outcomes to be determined before the end of 2009.