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Police are not allowed to search the Queen’s private estates for potentially stolen artefacts after the British royal was given a special exemption under the law.
The immunity clause is understood to have been made before the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act became law in the UK in 2017.
The law was introduced in a bid to protect the world’s cultural heritage from looting, theft and destruction.
The law seeks to safeguard against potential future wars and places bans on destroying items such as artworks, monuments and important archaeological or historical sites.
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As revealed by The Guardian, police are banned from searching Buckingham Palace or her estate in Sandringham for any artefacts.
A spokesperson for the Queen dismissed any suggestion there may be stolen or looted items in her private homes.
The exemption was uncovered through a Freedom of Information request.
Queen Elizabeth II and the potential power she is able to wield has been in the spotlight lately after it was revealed in February the royal had secretly lobbied ministers to change draft legislation.
In one example, uncovered by The Guardian, the Queen lobbied for a bill to be amended so that her “embarrassing” private wealth could be kept private.
Following that revelation, a petition was started calling for an investigation into the Queen’s “worrying and undemocratic ability to influence the government behind closed doors”.
More than 60,000 people have signed the petition.
The decision to grant the Queen an exemption from the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act was revealed in a 2016 letter written by the UK’s then-culture secretary John Whittingdale.
Mr Whittingdale explained in the letter, which was addressed to the Queen and sent to Buckingham Palace, that the draft law would include “measures that established new powers of entry upon land and thereby affects the interests of the crown”.
The law gives police powers to search premises, if they have reason to believe a stolen or looted artefact is inside.
“Separately, we wish to ensure that the powers of part 4 of the bill are not exercisable in relation to Her Majesty’s private estates,” the secretary for Mr Whittingdale wrote.
“While we could allude solely to Her Majesty’s private estates, the broader application to ‘in her private capacity’ ensures the totality of the bill does not apply and prevents any implication that some aspects of it might (which could occur if we referred solely to ‘private estates’).”
A palace spokesperson said the royal household was often consulted on bills “in order to ensure the technical accuracy and consistency of the application of the bill to the crown, a complex legal principle governed by statute and common law”.
“This process does not change the nature of any such bill,” the spokesperson added.
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