The Definition of Art in the Customs Law

Abstract

This dissertation deals with the difficulties arising from the collision of two different worlds: on one side, the creative and constantly-changing art world, on the other side the rational and crystallized legal world. In the last century, while international exchanges of artworks grew in importance and moved huge amounts of money throughout the globe, laws and regulations demonstrated their inability to deal with it. This work focuses on cross-borders issues arising from the lack of a common understanding of what is art among legal people and art experts. The purpose is to analyze the legal rules at the basis of customs classifications and to compare them with the application of those rules made by Courts. Finally, in the last chapter, starting from an analysis of what previously described, there is the elaboration of possible solutions so as to avoid that law keeps being an obstacle to artworks trade flow. Therefore, it is a very practical work, based on the examination of legal provisions and their factual applications. The methodology applied was firstly a review of all the relevant materials and then, through a comparative approach, the extrapolation of common principles as well as the existing differences. The conclusions are the final considerations built upon the results obtained from the work undertaken.