Red tape and regulation might not be obvious to most art fair visitors, but for many of its exhibitors, these have become a daily preoccupation. Their workload has intensified ahead of this year’s Tefaf in Maastricht, the first edition since the implementation of the European Union legislation known as “2019/880”.
Conceived to stop the trade in stolen or looted works, primarily those used to fund terrorism, the regulation stipulates that for items that are more than 200 years old and originated from a country outside the EU — ranging from Egyptian antiquities to historic porcelain — owners need proof of their first legitimate export before they come into the Union. There are stricter requirements for archaeological items more than 250 years old, and in all cases the law applies to items valued at more than €18,000, including associated costs.
Tefaf’s distinct offering of older art from around the world, brought by an international roster of dealers to the middle of Europe, make many of its exhibitors the hardest-hit since the regulation took effect last summer. “Since the legislation came in, we’ve been having constant conversations with the authorities in every EU country to try to understand the practical implications,” says Will Korner, Tefaf’s head of fairs.
While the trade supports the broad aim of the legislation, the approach is seen as disproportionate and scattergun, while its requirements are causing unnecessary headaches. “A small number of anecdotal cases relating to antiquities seem to have been the basis for imposing this [legislation] on a large section of the non-EU fine art and antiques market,” says Mark Dodgson, Secretary General of the British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA). “But no one can really think that Chinese ceramics are funding terrorism.”
Sara Öberg Strådal, managing director of the Basel-based dealers Dr Jörn Günther Rare Books, says that their medieval manuscripts speciality “certainly isn’t the target area” for terrorist financiers and is frustrated by the processes now in place.
Among the highlights that her dealership — based outside the EU in Switzerland — is bringing to Tefaf this year, is a vellum Sarum Missal (a Catholic liturgical book) from c1455-65, CHF350,000, that originated in England, also no longer in the EU.
Öberg Strådal says that this “left the UK legally 20 years ago, but the Arts Council England [ACE, responsible for administrating the licensing system] don’t keep licences from that period and the person who exported it didn’t keep it either”.
To clear the book for export and import, she explains that “we needed to get a letter from the seller, then evidence of their application to ACE, a letter from the seller’s lawyers and a statement from the British Library because, luckily, they had taken reserve photocopies from the book, which they do for important books for which export licences have been necessary.”
Öberg Strådal compares having an original proof of legal export as “like keeping a boarding pass for 20 years”, given that nobody knew it would be necessary to have in the future. “It would be very good if there could be exceptions for certain types of material, or certain countries, based on their [previous] export legislation,” she says. “Failing that, I would love to see clear guidance on what information could be a substitute for an export licence.”
Adding to the teething issues is that in order to access the necessary customs approval (for either a licence or the lighter-touch statement), the current registration portal requires dealerships to have a registered business or home address in the European Union.
As a result, some businesses are using shippers as their EU intermediary agents, but not all shippers are set up to clear the requirements, so some galleries need to use two firms — one to do the initial lift and another to take over once their work gets to the Netherlands — adding to the already high costs of transporting fine art.
While burdensome to galleries going to fairs such as Tefaf, they at least have shipping processes in place. But, Dodgson says, “for one-off sales, maybe to a private individual, setting up an account in the ICG [Import of Cultural Goods] system could be even more tricky”.
Korner says that “what would really help is some recognition that the system is not working”. A spokesperson for the European Commission confirms the current set-up but says there are “no plans to review the [EU address] requirement, without which the legal act would be deprived of its effect.” They explain: “If it was possible for the importer to be a person residing or established outside the Union, they would be also outside any EU jurisdiction and could evade any consequences or sanctions, in case of infringement.”
Meanwhile, not everyone opposes the new regulation. “Yes, it makes everything slower and harder, but it does also create an opportunity,” says Salomon Aaron, director at London’s David Aaron gallery. “Buyers can have confidence in a finite supply of items with extraordinarily documented provenance that can circulate freely.” Among the applicable works that the David Aaron gallery is bringing to Tefaf are two Egyptian pieces: a 40cm-high, limestone baboon (26th-30th Dynasty, 664-343 BC, £280,000) and “Relief with a Harpist” (18th Dynasty, c1550-1069BC, £68,000).
Öberg Strådal finds though that it limits, and potentially closes, other legitimate areas of the market. “We made the decision with some manuscripts that it wasn’t worth the hassle to bring them to Tefaf,” she says. “And it will affect what we acquire too, if you can’t show something at such an important fair. But there are some books that are maybe not as exceptional, but are still really interesting.”
The impact so far is hard to judge. Dodgson has run the art market export numbers from the UK to the EU since the system kicked in and found that these were down by about 5 per cent, “so not an enormous amount”, although the “antiques and collector pieces” segment within this fell by 25 per cent. Still, he notes, “these figures will include work from all origins, such as French porcelain or German furniture, so doesn’t tell us a lot yet”.
Meanwhile, he notes a possible silver lining for the UK. “After Brexit, it looked like Paris could be a stronger market, but now there’s talk that some business could return here, particularly for Asian items.” So far, he says, he has not had any meaningful feedback from members (BADA represents about 250 dealerships across all disciplines). “The regulation hits a relatively small proportion of the art market and it is still early days. Tefaf will be the big test.”
Find out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend on Instagram, Bluesky and X, and sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning
