This work critically analyses the state of legal regulation of the art and antiquities trade and seeks an answer to the question: how well do the United States and the United Kingdom respond to the illicit trade in cultural property? It describes and analyzes the interactions of the US and the UK with the major international and domestic cultural property regulatory mechanisms currently in pl~ce so as to prevent and repair losses to . our collective cultural heritage. Cultural property litigation is expensive, requires testimony of international experts, and implicates international legal ideas such as choice of law, conflict of law, international law, contract law, commercial law, and criminal law. This work aims to show how these disputes take shape in both the US and the UK; how they can be avoided; and how a better cultural property policy may emerge. The structure of this work traces the path of cultural property from the ideal point for regulation to the least desirable. It begins in source nations, follows the relevant international framework, accounts for the private international law in the US and UK, and finally examines the legal safeguards in the US and the UK when these objects are bought and sold.