Morocco: artifacts

Morocco allows private ownership but controls export. Export of antiquities needs a ministry authorisation; the 2015 Mining Code covers fossils and meteorites separately. Governing law: Law 22-80 on the Conservation of Historic Monuments, Sites, Inscriptions, Objects of Art and Antiquity (1980). Stratum asks for the export paperwork reference before the piece is listed.

The United States restricts import of Morocco archaeological material of 1000000 BCE – 1750 CE and ethnological material c. 1549–1912, coins included under the CPIA (CBP Dec. 26-02, restricted since 2021). Entry needs the export certificate or proof the object left Morocco before 2021. Domestic resale of material already lawfully in the US is not restricted by this, but the paper is what a buyer will ask for.

US courts have applied foreign patrimony laws through the National Stolen Property Act (United States v. McClain, 1977; United States v. Schultz, 2003): an object exported after a clear vesting law can be stolen property in the United States even when no US import restriction existed at the time. The date of the earliest document that places an object outside Morocco is therefore the single most valuable fact on its record.

Sources

Cite this article

Stratum Strata. "Morocco: artifacts" (Law & ethics). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-20. https://stratum.black/strata/law/archaeology-morocco. Accessed 2026-09-21.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-archaeology-morocco,
  title        = {Morocco: artifacts},
  author       = {{Stratum Strata}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/law/archaeology-morocco}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Law & ethics article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-20; sources: stratum. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.