Monday, November 13, 2006

Why do we have export bans for art?

Some people may find what I'm about to say a little controversial, but I've noticed in recent weeks that the Culutre Minister, David Lammy, seems to do little more than slap export bans on works of art that have been legitimately purchased on the open market.

Now, perosnally I have a big problem with banning the export of works of art that have been legitimately sold, either in a private deal or at auction. This is especially the case when you see that the export ban is limited whilst they look for someone in the UK to stump up the cash to outbid the buyer see here for example.

Surely a person spending thousands on pieces of art, or historical diaries should be allowed to take them wherever they wish? The Government should not be intefering in the market in this way, should it?

2 comments:

Croydonian said...

You and me both pal. The curse of reading the GNN site, eh?

Benedict White said...

tricky one. I grew up in the Lebanon where culturaly significant finds can be found by farting. However the problem comes when you wake up one morning and find you have no culture left as Paul Getty's museum has bought the lot.

In this case a pragmatic Conservative has to do something, and indeed we did, we introduced the legislation of which you complain.