Fourteen years after the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention came into force, the first special meeting as envisaged under Article 20 of the Convention was held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on 19 June 2012. Article 20 provides that “The President of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) may at regular intervals, or at any time at the request of five Contracting states, convene a special committee in order to review the practical operation of this Convention.” Appropriately, the first special committee meeting took place at UNESCO's head office, preceding by a day the second meeting of States Parties to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership Cultural Property, which convened in Paris on 20–21 June 2012. The UNIDROIT Convention was initiated at the request of UNESCO to fill the gap in the 1970 Convention relating to the private law aspects of the return and restitution of stolen or illegally exported cultural property.