EU's New Antiquities Import Rules Risk Backfiring on Art Market

A new EU regulation, effective June 28, 2025, aims to combat illicit trafficking of cultural goods but threatens to severely restrict the circulation of ancient art. Regulation (EU) 2019/880 imposes a strict due diligence process for importing cultural goods produced or discovered outside the EU. It applies to three categories: illegally exported goods (banned outright); archaeological objects over 250 years old (requiring an import license); and items over 200 years with a value above €18,000 (requiring a signed importer declaration). Importers must provide exhaustive documentation proving legal export from the country of origin, using the digital platform TRACES NT and the ICG database. Responses from export offices must come within 90 days. Critics argue the regulation is overly broad, lumping archaeological finds with 17th-century art, and that the €18,000 threshold captures nearly all trade. The required proof of legality often does not exist even for legitimate exports, as past paperwork was rarely kept long-term. Bureaucratic inefficiencies in national export offices compound the problem. While temporary imports for exhibitions and fairs may qualify for a simplified declaration, this exemption does not apply to private lenders, discouraging loans from private collections. The regulation is seen as a preventive criminalization of the art trade, with operators confused and dismayed. The measure was partly spurred by looting in Syria and Iraq.