by Giuseppe Calabi and Valentina Favero (CBM&Partners)
Wannenes has recently joined the Progetto Apollo, a group – made up of the main exponents of the art market – that is promoting a reform project regarding the laws in and around the free circulation of artworks. The objective of this project is the rationalisation and simplification of said laws without however compromising the safeguarding of our artistic heritage as laid down in Article 9 of the Italian Constitution.
The need for a reform stems from the legislative limitations and the out-of-date legal impositions that have long paralysed the art market in Italy which is not growing as quickly as other markets in Europe and beyond.
Indeed, in a market that, according to the Tefaf Art Market Report 2015, generates a turnover of approximately 51 billion euro on an international level, Italy possesses a mere 1% of the market share: a paltry figure especially when compared to the United Kingdom which, although possessing a cultural and artistic wealth that is by far inferior to that of Italy’s, generates approximately 20% of the world turnover and is the country with the highest number of imports and exports on an international level.
The reasons behind such a high level of stagnation must be traced to a set of rules and regulations that have imposed an indiscriminate control over the export of any object whatsoever, whether it be a work by a deceased artist or an artist of over 50 years of age, without any consideration (by the Export Office) of the objective economic value of the work and often resorting to criteria of mere discretion in decisions made about a work’s specific interest in terms of Italy’s cultural heritage.
Whether it be a work by De Chirico or a water-colour by an unknown artist, each and every object has to be physically viewed by a committee of experts from Italy’s Culture and Art Authority and the subsequent procedure has to be sent to the central administrative offices that – in theory – respond within the following ten days. In pratice, there are no final terms in relation to such procedures and therefore the time required to obtain a licence for the freedom of circulation of a work easily takes longer than the total forty days allowed by law thus creating a whole host of difficulties for those responsible for sending works abroad.
Furthermore, the high degree of discretion that characterises the work of the cultural administration entails significant levels of uncertainty regarding the results of such procedures. Indeed, irrespective of the economic value of the work under examination, when the aforementioned Export Office shows a particular cultural interest in a particular work it refuses a licence for the said work’s freedom of circulation and automatically commences the procedure – i.e. the notification – for the declaration of the work’s cultural interest and relevance for the nation.
This constitutes a serious deterrent for those who, desiring to sell or merely exhibit a work abroad, feel held back by the chance that the cultural administration will declare the work of cultural interest and thus prevent once and for all the work from leaving Italy.
For this reason, one may readily appreciate how much those involved are so severely penalised, compared to their European colleagues, as a result of a legal set-up that is excessively protectionist and unnecessarily bloated administrative procedures that have no equals on a European level.
This is what the reform supported by the Progetto Apollo is all about. First of all, it is promoting the introduction of value thresholds that have already been stipulated in European law, for the export of works of art outside the European Union as well as for the export of works within the European Union. In particular, the extension of said value thresholds laid down by European regulations would enable the export – with a simple self-certification procedure – of paintings up to a value of 150,000 euro and of books and sculpture up to a value of 50,000 euro.
Secondly, Progetto Apollo is promoting the extension of a time threshold – in terms of safeguarding measures to be taken – from 50 years to 70 years from the date of the work’s manufacture, in the case of a deceased artist. This is in order to enhance the value of contemporary art and will enable works that are less than 70 years of age to freely leave Italy with a self-certification procedure.
Last but not least, the group is asking for a revision of criteria – currently contained in a 1974 Ministry of Education Circular – to comply with procedures regarding exports and to extend these very criteria to declarations of cultural interest (“notifications”) in order to render these declarations of cultural interest (highly important for the work) more rigorous in nature and less arbitrary.
Over the last few months, the group’s delegation has met – frequently – numerous exponents of the main political areas as well as the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Culture, Art and Tourism.
Following a lengthy series of negotiations (resulting in the exclusion of further requests of the group such as tacit approval and a final time limit for the procedure regarding the issue of a licence for free circulation), the reform proposal promoted by the Progetto Apollo was included in Bill no. 2085 (annual Law for the Market and Competition), to be examined by the 10th Permanent Committee (Industry, Commerce, Tourism).
Pending the Bill’s positive outcome, we trust that this particular reform will help overcome the state of paralysis in a sector which is highly important for Italy and that it will enable the country to achieve a more sustained degree of competition in a market that is increasingly more global.