New EU Cultural Property Laws
June 25 2025
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Financial Times have published an article by Melanie Gerlis today on the EU's new Cultural Property Laws which will be coming into effect this week. Essentially, objects older than 200 years, worth more than €18,000 and that were created outside of the EU, will have to be accompanied by proof of their legal export before importing it into the EU. This would affect, let's say, the importing of objects like early British portraits for example - which many dealers know very rarely come with full provenances. The intention of this legislation is of course to stop the illegal trade of good such as stolen antiquities, but, it seems possible that other objects will now increasingly be caught up within its web. The article draws attention to the effect this will have on fairs such as TEFAF in Maastricht, with concerns that older art will gradually be cut-out due to increasing bureaucracy. However, it remains to be seen how individual countries will be adopting these laws in due course.
