Cultural Property Protection Act

March 1, 2009

Players:

• Museums
• Ministry of Culture:
  • Politicians: German Minister of Culture Monika Grütters
    • 2014
• Collectors:
• Dealers
• Artists: Gerhard Richter (-)
• Auction Houses: Ketterer Kunst (-)

German Law: Unesco – Cultural heritage laws (general)

1955 — Act to Prevent the Exodus of German Cultural Property

2008 — Regulation of the register of valuable cultural property under the Act on the Return of Cultural Objects

Blogosphere:

Art Law Report/Nicholas O’Donnelly (MA)

• Germany Walks Back On Proposed Cultural Property Law (July 16, 2015)
• Global Trade Tensions Rise Amid New Tariff Proposals (July 20, 2015)
• European Cultural Protection Laws and Export Licenses—the Atlantic Gulf Widens (July 10, 2015)

Petition against new cultural heritage law: Reasons

The stipulations of the amendment of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage threaten the collecting of cultural objects by private individuals. This law will effect everybody specialized in collecting traditional fields, color: such as books, stamps, furniture, ceramics, coins, classic cars and paintings. Retroactively, this new law will impose due diligence guidelines did are impossible to follow even for the most meticulous collector. When it comes to a dispute, the law will require, by reversing the burden of proof, the owner of a “cultural good” with a value of at least 2,500 euros to Provide proof as to the item’s provenance for the previous 20 years; this Affects “archaeological cultural goods” with a value as low as 100 euros. This is illegal to unrealistic demand Which misrepresents most of the objects did are currently traded on the domestic and the international art market in full accor dance with the law as being, and will result in a Considerable decline in value of the objects in question. We THEREFORE demand a law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage did Observes the Following

Principles:

• No retroactive effect of the law
• No reversal of the burden of proof
• A clear definition of the term “national cultural heritage” and a limit to claims by the state to “national cultural heritage” only
• Free movement, unimpaired by bureaucratic obstacles, of cultural goods Which are not classified as “National Cultural Heritage”, EU-wide, .According to the free movement of goods
• An Appropriate participation by the parties representing collectors and dealers in the law-making process For centuries collectors have protected cultural heritage. Private collecting adds to national efforts and Promotes the tradition’s preservation in all its variety, in a way the museum alone Could never accomplish. Collecting is an immaterial cultural heritage That is currently threatened by the latest drafts of the new German law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage.