Flea market and customs.
 

Hi, I saw a few excellent oil paintings bought in Moscow and St. Petersburg at a flea market. In most cases artists sell their own paintings and very often for a good price. The paintings are signed but no supporting paperwork is provided by the artists.
If I buy paintings there, do I have to declare them in the customs declaration?

t

Our splurge when travelling is taking home art work. More often than not, we have the paintings that we buy framed in Paris and they are professionaly-packed as hand-carried pieces which we give to the our stewardesses for storage during the flight home. In other words, they are bulky and obvious enough that they have to be declared. Just like anything else that you purchase to bring home, you have to declare them on the Customs form.

Cultural Artifacts and Cultural Property (Art/Artifacts)





Most countries have laws that protect their cultural property (art/artifacts/antiquities; archaeological and ethnological material are also terms that are used). Such laws include export controls and/or national ownership of cultural property. Even if purchased from a business in the country of origin or in another country, legal ownership of such artifacts may be in question if brought into the U.S. Make certain you have documents such as export permits and receipts, although these do not necessarily confer ownership. While foreign laws may not be enforceable in the U.S., they can cause certain U.S. law to be invoked. For example, as a general rule, under the U.S. National Stolen Property Act, one cannot have legal title to art/artifacts/antiquities that were stolen, no matter how many times such items may have changed hands. Articles of stolen cultural property (from museums or from religious or secular public monuments) originating in any of the countries party to the 1970 UNESCO Convention specifically may not be imported into the U.S.


In addition, U.S. law may restrict importation into the U.S. of specific categories of art/artifacts/antiquities:

U.S. law restricts the import of any Pre-Colombian monumental and architectural sculpture and murals from Central and South American countries.
U.S. law specifically restricts the importation of Native American artifacts from Canada; Maya Pre-Colombian archaeological objects from Guatemala; Pre-Colombian archaeological objects from El Salvador and Peru; archaeological objects (such as terra-cotta statues) from Mali; Colonial period objects such as paintings and ritual objects from Peru; Byzantine period ritual and ecclesiastic objects (such as icons) from Cyprus; Khmer stone archaeological sculpture from Cambodia.

Importation of items such as those above is permitted only when the items are accompanied by an export permit issued by the country of origin (where such items were first found). Purveyors of such items have been known to offer phony export certificates. As additional U.S. import restrictions may be imposed in response to requests from other countries, it is wise for the prospective purchaser to visit the State Department's cultural property Web site. This Web site also has images representative of the categories of cultural property for which there are specific U.S. import restrictions.

If you should have a piece of art that's over 100 years old (I'm not talking about ancient artifacts or the like), you don't have to pay duty on it. What you need is a statement from the seller giving the date of the work and possibly a bit about the provenance.

US Customs requires that you declare every article you purchased over the border. If you bring in an item without declaring it they will sieze it and possibly inflict legal troubles on you.

The other side of your question is exporting the article from Russia. My experience was in the Ukraine when it was still part of the USSR. I bought a painting from an artist standing in the Metro. It was so fresh that you could still smell the paint. No receipt of course, so I wrote one in my notebook and had him sign it. On departure I declared it to Ukraine Customs as they require. They seized it. Some protests from my hosts and persuasion from a cigarette lighter which I palmed off to the customs inspector quickly reversed the seizure.

Check me if I'm wrong , but in addition to anything over 100 years old, any ORIGINAL art work, painting, litho, sculpture, no matter it's value or provenance, unless it is a national treasure...which I doubt you'd find in a flea market! is exempt ..you do have to declare it but there is no duty charged.

jody:

Having declared all artwork that we brought in from Europe and Asia, we were not required to pay any tariff/duty upon arrival in the US. Some of our Asian ceramics were certified/documented to be > 100 years old. Most were < 100 years old.

Expanding on others? answers, there are two issues:

1. Exporting the artwork from Russia. My company has done this many times (both for others and on our own behalf), and I can say that Russia is stricter about exporting works of cultural value than most countries in Europe. For most crafts, a shop or vendor will have a small piece of paper that is given with the work which says that the piece is commercially produced, has no artistic or cultural value, and when it was produced. Keep this as you may be challenged to produce it when you leave Russia. For works of art such as paintings, prints, engravings, sculptures, etc. that are less than approximately 50 years old (depending on the exact work), you need to go to the Ministry of Culture?s office in 12 of Russia?s largest cities (in Moscow it is on Old Arbat, in St. Petersburg is at Malaya Morskaya, 17) during business hours and bring the piece, along with two photographs (each with the artist?s name, title, year, medium, size of work, all in Russian), and a photocopy of your passport, fill out a form in Russian, and wait for it to be approved. It is time consuming (anywhere from one hour to a day) and challenging to do this on your own, especially if you don?t speak Russian. If you don?t have this paperwork, you risk losing the artwork when you leave the country, as well as (potentially) being fined. Some galleries will provide this paperwork (if they don?t ask you for your passport they are not giving you the correct documents).

For those works older than approximately 50 years old, you will need certification by an art expert (approved by the Ministry of Culture) that the work is not culturally significant. Forget about doing this on your own, or without the help of a specialist.

2. Bringing the work into the US. You do have to declare the artwork when you arrive in the US; duties (if any) vary depending on the type of work and whether it is considered to be ?fine art?. In addition, you are usually responsible to pay usage tax (basically sales tax) to your local government(s) on the cost of the work (there is a large sign at JFK to this effect).