Controls on the export of cultural property. Historical and contemporary regulatory frameworks in Italy, France and England

First examples of cultural heritage law reveal the concerns of the legislator for the uncontrolled outflow of artworks and other objects of cultural interest from regional and national borders. The first introduction of an art export control system dates back to the beginning of XVII century. The aim of the regulation and control of the permanent removal of cultural objects is to preserve the national identity and to make up the national cultural heritage of a given country. Nowadays almost every country worldwide is equipped with a domestic regulatory framework aimed at elevating barriers to the unindiscriminate circulation of artworks, besides being affected also by supranational norms and soft law mechanisms. This dissertation examines the art export control system adopted in three countries, namely Italy, France and England and at the Community and international level. The research is conducted taking into account different perspectives, comprehending an analysis of the legislative framework; the administrative structure and organisation; and the pervasiveness of an eventual judicial review over the acts issued by the Administration. The juxstaposition of these three levels reveals to be essential since the whole regulatory framework on the export of cultural property is characterised by the interposition of three different public powers involved (the legislative, executive and, eventually, also the judicial one). The main investigative tools used in this dissertation comprehend official legislative texts; parliamentary debates; letters and notes exchanged between politicians and experts; official reports delivered by administration offices; statistics on the number of export licences granted; judgments and doctrinal contributions. In addition to this, documents stored in the Italian, French and English national archives have been widely used during the whole dissertation. Archival researches conducted proved to be extremely useful in order to reconstruct the history of the regulatory frameworks under esamination and, more importantly, in order to understand the backstory which lead to the adoption of official legislation and to learn about its practical implementation. For this purpose, interviews conducted by the author with different experts and civil servants working in the competent Administrations implementing the control on the export of cultural objects in Italy, France and England were instrumental for a complete understanding.