EXPORTING ART: INSTITUTE OF ART AND LAW SEMINAR WITH MAURICE TURNOR GARDNER LLP: 15 FEBRUARY 2022.
| Author | Gould, Emily |
The mobility of works of art, as with people and almost everything else, has been severely restricted over the past two years by the Covid-19 pandemic. Fittingly, then, as international travel becomes possible once again, the IAL's first in-person seminar since February 2020 was dedicated to the topic of art exports. It was a pleasure to welcome participants to the London offices of the law firm Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP, (1) with whom we partnered to deliver the seminar on Tuesday 15 February.
The seminar featured experts from a wide range of jurisdictions who discussed the challenges and new developments in this area and was moderated by Clare Maurice, founding partner of Maurice Tumor Gardner LLP.
There could be few others with greater insight into the UK regime for the export of works of art than Lord Inglewood, former Chair of the UK's Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (the RCEWA) who gave a fascinating overview of the UK system, from its origins in the mid-twentieth century to its role and operations today. He described the 'cleverly crafted rules' known as the Waverley criteria which guide the Committee's decisions and form the bedrock of the UK regime. With their focus on whether a work is connected with history and national life, has outstanding aesthetic importance or outstanding significance for the study of art, learning or history, he suggested that the criteria generally achieve their objective of balancing the legitimate interests of the various stakeholders in the art world in a quasijudicial, but flexible process.
The UK export system for works of art is based on the right of the Secretary of State, at his discretion and on advice of the RCEWA, to bar a work from export for a limited period of time, to allow a UK purchaser to acquire the work at fair market value and 'save it for the nation'. The current rules of procedure for UK exports (2) were summarised by Anastasia Tennant, Senior Policy Adviser in Museums and Cultural Property, Arts Council. (3) One recent change of some significance results from the UK's departure from the EU, removing the former requirement for exports from the UK to comply with EU, as well as UK rules. Checks will still be made by the UK authorities, however, to verily that works which came into the UK from the EU since 1 January 1993 did so lawfully and definitively.
Lord Inglewood noted that there have been shifts in emphasis since the 1950s-- the...
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