Selling or moving a work out of Germany has just become a lot more difficult. The German parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday (23.06.2016) passed a new law that will closely regulate the international sale of art and artifacts deemed to be of significant cultural value.
As for ancient archeological treasures, a permit will be required for international sales regardless of their value. The Deutscher Kulturrat, Germany’s umbrella organization for cultural institutions, on Thursday praised the last minute decision to drop the value from 100 to zero euros. “With the new cultural protection law, Germany finally recognizes – with decades of delay – the standards of UNESCO and Europe, which are in effect in nearly every European country,” said Germany’s Culture Minister Monika Grütters, who has adamantly backed the protection act from the beginning.
The new law (the ‘neue Kulturgutschutzgesetz’) is active since August 6, 2016. You can find here the speech of the German minister Grütters (in German) and some more information here (in German).
EAA-Committee on the Illicit Trade in Cultural Material 