The UK Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill received its final reading and will shortly receive royal assent passing onto the statute books, law firm Boodle Hatfield has said and warned clients to make sure they do their due diligence when buying any artefacts.

The legislation will see the UK Government ratify the 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict, creating new offences in UK law –  including making cultural property the object of attack, and dealing in cultural property that has been unlawfully exported from an occupied territory.

Rudy Capildeo, an a...