US federal law on artifacts: ARPA, NAGPRA, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act

The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 (16 U.S.C. 470aa–mm) governs anything over 100 years old on public or Indian lands. Excavating, removing, damaging or trafficking in such material without a permit is a federal offence: up to $10,000 or a year for a first knowing violation, $20,000 or two years when the value exceeds $500, and $100,000 or five years on a repeat. Section 470ee(c) reaches further than federal land — it makes the sale, purchase or transport in interstate or foreign commerce of any archaeological resource taken in violation of state or local law a federal crime too, which is why the state tables in this section matter to a dealer selling across state lines.

Two clauses are misread constantly. Section 470ee(g) says the criminal penalties "shall not be deemed applicable to any person with respect to the removal of arrowheads located on the surface of the ground" — it removes the penalty, not the ownership; a surface arrowhead from BLM or National Forest land remains government property, and the agencies say so. Section 470ee(f) is the useful one: nothing in the federal-land trafficking clause applies to a resource that was in a person's lawful possession before 31 October 1979. An old collection with a documented pre-1979 find date can be sold; a bare date on a label is not documentation, so the record needs the evidence attached.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 1990) defines four classes of cultural item — human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony — and 18 U.S.C. 1170 makes knowingly selling, purchasing, using for profit or transporting for sale Native American human remains without right of possession, or cultural items obtained in violation of the Act, a federal crime: up to a year for a first offence and, since the 2022 amendment, up to ten years for a subsequent one. The 2024 regulations (43 CFR 10, effective 12 January 2024) bind museums and agencies, not private sellers, but they define the categories, and every platform prohibits the trade. Stratum blocks these records outright: no paperwork clears a grave lot.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 (25 U.S.C. 305e) makes it unlawful to offer or sell any good in a manner that falsely suggests it is Indian produced or the product of a particular tribe — $250,000 and five years for a first offence, treble damages in a civil action. The regulations exclude products made before 1935 (25 CFR 309.23), so prehistoric material is outside it; a 1970s rug in the Navajo tradition by a non-Native weaver is squarely inside it, and must be sold as "Navajo-style". eBay's artifacts policy says the same and routes such goods to its non-Native category.

Import is a separate layer: the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 2601–2613) lets the United States bar the import of designated archaeological and ethnological material from thirty-four countries with which it has agreements, plus emergency actions; the Pre-Columbian Monumental and Architectural Sculpture and Murals statute (19 U.S.C. 2091–2095) requires a source-country export certificate for stelae, altars, architectural elements and wall art from ten Latin American countries; and separate statutes cover anything removed from Iraq since 1990 or Syria since 2011. See the designated-list article for the country table.