Tag Archives: rules

Return to donor: Tate to deaccession Bacon archive

Posted on: July 20, 2022 by Joanna Owens

The Tate is to take the unusual step of deaccessioning from its collection and returning to the donor material from the studio of Francis Bacon, once described as the Tate Archive’s most important acquisition ever and suggested to be worth around £20m. The Tate is one of a number of UK National Museums governed by national legislation, whose […]

Done right, selling museum pieces can work – but probably not with Michelangelos

Posted on: October 1, 2020 by Alexander Herman

This comment first appeared on The Art Newspaper website on 25 September 2020. It has been reproduced with the editorial staff’s kind permission. Is the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) going to sell its Michelangelo? It seems a preposterous proposition, but these are rather preposterous times. The idea, apparently floated by a handful of Royal […]

Attributed Giotto now stuck in legal limbo

Posted on: July 24, 2018 by Alexander Herman

Yesterday, an Italian painting with a colourful history had its fate sealed by a UK court. The Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court has decided that Arts Council England (ACE), the delegated authority that issues export licences for cultural property leaving UK shores, was not the ‘competent authority’ to issue an EU licence for […]

Strict export rules apply to Dalí painting

Posted on: December 10, 2015 by Alexander Herman

A recent report involving a Dalí painting, Figura en una taula (pictured below), has once again brought the issue of cultural export controls into focus. The Dalí painting, owned by an Italian national named Elena Quarestani, has been blocked by the Italian authorities from leaving the country. This is because it has been subject to a ‘declaration of […]

International Art Transactions

Posted on: May 14, 2015 by Alexander Herman

A great seminar yesterday afternoon at Maurice Turnor Gardner in London, with a broad range of topics covered: conflicts of laws, title to ancient artefacts, vesting statutes, negligence in art appraisal, export licensing, customs warehousing, import VAT and freeports. I think it’s fair to say that our speakers covered most, if not all, of the […]

UK Export Licensing Rules Criticised

Posted on: November 29, 2013 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

Following the auction sale in Hong Kong of the Riesco Collection, Maurice Davies of the Museums Association has criticised the UK’s  export licensing system as “arcane, even archaic”.   Davies asserted that “the Riesco items were cleared speedily for export, and granted a permanent export license even though it was widely known that the items were destined […]