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Export art from Italy and import taxes

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Import taxes and fees on works of art from Italy

We will try to make some clarity about import taxes on original artwork, which like any other goods purchased in a country other than ours, unfortunately is subject to payment of import taxes, we will see below in which countries are applied , benchmarks and application thresholds.

There is a substantial difference between works of art over the age of 50, with recognized cultural value and work of art as a contemporary living creator with no cultural value attributed.
Cultural value is usually attributed to an author by the representative of the cultural heritage of the state, for example by the number of works in museums, in the Italian case, is established by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, each nation has its own institution for protection of its own cultural and artistic heritage.

We will deal only of what concerns my paintings, that is the export from Italy and the import into another country of works of living author, under 50 years.

Italy, being the country with the largest and most important artistic heritage in the world, requires, for every good with a description of goods, works of art, painting, etc. sent to another country, a declaration certifying that the good is free to be sold and dispatched to a different country, is therefore not subject to the cultural or artistic constraint imposed by the country, which prevents its definitive exit from the national territory.
To get this certification, the seller or the artist have to do a bureaucratic job, which I will not explain here, because this go off topic.

So let’s see the import taxes for works of ‘non-cultural or historical interest’ which are mine:

Italy ► European Union

No import or export tax or fees, remains the obligation of the export certificate of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, provided by the seller or artist.


Italy ► United States of America

No import or export tax or fees, remains the obligation of the Export Certificate of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage provided by the seller or artist, and it is required by the US customs to complete some forms or self-certificates, for more information visit this link


Italy ► Australia

No import or export tax up to a value of 1,000 AUD for top value works requires a self-certification and perhaps a small fee, which should not exceed 5%. More informations

Remains the obligation of the Export Certificate of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage provided by the seller or artist.


Italy ► Canada

No export tax, remains the obligation of the export certificate of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage provided by the seller or artist.
Unknown to any import tax, we found a nice application of Canadian customs, but we can not get it to work, maybe you’ll have better luck. More informations


Italy ► UAE

It is forbidden to import into the United Arab Emirates publications, including works of art contradicting Islamic values. Unknown import tax for approved works, please refer to this link


Conclusions

2023.03.05 update

Technology help us nowadays and if you need to be sure about your duty import fees, my advice is you should use the duty fees calculator of which i leave the link below.

About italian bureaucracy about export certification of contemporary minor art, i think that is an absurd rule that Italian, that does not represent emerging artists and fans of minor art, but frames the art as being all the same, forcing the artist or seller to a useless bureaucratic procedure.

But luckily the bureaucracy, especially the Italian one, is made so you can always be bypassed, the way there is, contact me if you have doubts about your purchase of affordable original art in Italy from an emerging artist or an minor artist.

I’ve discover today this accurate tool to calculate duty taxes if any, and want shared with all you, the tool is useful and easy to use, i leave here the link:  Simply duty import calculator

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