İnsanoğlu, neolitik dönemden itibaren yerleşik düzene geçmesiyle birlikte yaşadığı doğal çevrede bulunan fiziksel ortamlarda sosyal hayat anlayışını, bakış açısını, inandığı değerleri, edindiği tecrübeleri ve içinde bulunduğu oluşturmuştur/oluşturmaktadır. Tarihsel ve kültürel çevrelerde bulunan bu eserler; ekonomik, siyasal ve sosyal nedenlerden dolayı bulundukları yerlerden edilmiş/edilmektedir. Geçmiş uygarlıklara ve medeniyetlere ait eserlerin bulunduğu çevrelerin korunmasına ilişkin girişimlerin çok eski dönemlere dayandığı bilinmektedir. 18. ve 19. yüzyılda Avrupa’da meydana gelen

Humankind has always been creating artifacts which reflect the socio-cultural structure of the society he is living in, his understanding of social life, his perspective and the understanding of social life, his experience and values in his physical environments of the nature since he settled in the Neolithic period. These artifacts in the historical and cultural environments have been stolen, damaged or destroyed due to economic, political or social reasons and the attempts to protect the artifacts which belong to ancient civilizations date back to old times. The industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries led to an unplanned and unsustainable urbanization approach leading to a destruction of the natural environment which started with the population increase in the 16thcentury. While the winner of the fight/war against the natural/cultural environment is thought to be the man who is utilizing the technological capacities with a view to gaining advantage, the loser is also the man himself who is actually living the results of this fight. The 20th century is an important period of time when the concept for protecting the historical and cultural environments started to be comprehended and the theoretical foundation for that was built. In this period national/international studies were carried out and legislations were made based on the scientific protection approaches from the theory to the practice. Some measures have been developed with a view to preventing and fighting the increasing number of crimes related to the artifacts found in the historical and cultural environments. The government agencies, officers and the measures adopted by different countries have some similarities in countering the crimes against historical artifacts and the protection of the sites. In this study the duties and authority of the law enforcement will be discussed comperatively in terms of protection of cultural and historical environment for Turkey and Italy among the most powerful and deeprooted Mediterranean countries and hosted many civilizations through out the history