Strengthening the Process for Retaining National Treasures
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
The government鈥檚 response to the public consultation paper 鈥楽trengthening the Process for Retaining our National Treasures鈥� published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 15 December 2018.
This response sets out the government鈥檚 assessment of the consultation responses, announces plans to introduce a legally binding mechanism to the export deferral process and sets out how this would work.
Original consultation
Consultation description
The UK is home to a wide variety of exceptional cultural objects: our 鈥榥ational treasures鈥�, which enrich the culture, heritage and scholarship of audiences today and will do so for future generations.
We are able to retain many of these amazing objects thanks to the export control system which provides a safety-net: the application for a licence to export provides an opportunity to save our most significant cultural objects from leaving the UK.
This consultation outlines proposals to introduce a legally binding mechanism - often referred to as a 鈥榖inding offers鈥� mechanism - so that owners of cultural objects found to be national treasures, who have confirmed that they are prepared to sell to a museum or gallery or relevant private purchaser at an agreed fair market price, are legally bound to follow through on their commitment to do so.
Documents
Updates to this page
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Published Strengthening the Process for Retaining National Treasures - Government response to public consultation.
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First published.