Today I spent preparing applications for UK export licenses for some American book dealers going to the London Book Fair. It took hours and hours, and I couldn't even do all of them because I ran out of blank application forms. We have a package of them in our London storage, but don't do me no good here. So my colleagues will have to do the remainder of them...by hand, in London. Not fun.
Just to let you know, because of a lot of cultural fraud and manipulation by various groups in past years, the EU worked up a system by which books, for example, that are over 100 years of age and valued at more than $55,000 have to get an official okay to be shipped out of the region. Each country, has its own little specifications and some can be very difficult. The UK is relatively the easiest of them all to deal with.
First you have to have an EORI number (Economic Operators Registration Identification number), which an American company can get in the UK if they show a need for it. Then, if you're bringing the books or artwork in for an exhibition or fair, you have to provide proof of import entry, fill out a long form that's in triplicate (I type them and go very slowly, because typos are very much frowned upon), submit documentation of the book's value, a description, copy of the import entry and signed application...and usually you get the okay within 5 days. Not always, but usually.
We've had issues with American dealers insisting that since their books are only going for exhibition, they don't require an export license to be brought home. Not true. Even if it's brought into the UK and taken straight out, again, you have to get a license (unless you're not declaring the book, but if you do sneak it in and sell it, then the provenance is all screwed up...and no institution will touch anything that does not have a legal paper trails of its history, anymore).
Of course, we've also had British dealers tell us certain items I know require a license do not require one. And others have told me I'm wrong when I say their license is expired or filled in wrong, because I'm American, not British. So I refer them to the Arts Council, who issues the licenses in the UK, to be disabused of their opinions. It's amazing how stubborn and obtuse people can get until smacked down by authority.
And some still try to pull shit...and they sometimes get caught. Then it's all, You have to help me! Which we do as best we can. But sometimes that means getting a lawyer familiar with customs rules and regulations to handle the situation, and that ain't cheap. But if you want your $100K worth of books back you got to fork it out.
I once made the mistake when I was at Heritage of trying to be sneaky in order to get a book to a dealer in Italy. It got snagged and took us thousands of dollars and months to get it back, and got another dealer in trouble because he'd sold it to us without the proper paperwork involved. After that, I went strictly by the book...
...so to speak...
Just to let you know, because of a lot of cultural fraud and manipulation by various groups in past years, the EU worked up a system by which books, for example, that are over 100 years of age and valued at more than $55,000 have to get an official okay to be shipped out of the region. Each country, has its own little specifications and some can be very difficult. The UK is relatively the easiest of them all to deal with.
First you have to have an EORI number (Economic Operators Registration Identification number), which an American company can get in the UK if they show a need for it. Then, if you're bringing the books or artwork in for an exhibition or fair, you have to provide proof of import entry, fill out a long form that's in triplicate (I type them and go very slowly, because typos are very much frowned upon), submit documentation of the book's value, a description, copy of the import entry and signed application...and usually you get the okay within 5 days. Not always, but usually.
We've had issues with American dealers insisting that since their books are only going for exhibition, they don't require an export license to be brought home. Not true. Even if it's brought into the UK and taken straight out, again, you have to get a license (unless you're not declaring the book, but if you do sneak it in and sell it, then the provenance is all screwed up...and no institution will touch anything that does not have a legal paper trails of its history, anymore).
Of course, we've also had British dealers tell us certain items I know require a license do not require one. And others have told me I'm wrong when I say their license is expired or filled in wrong, because I'm American, not British. So I refer them to the Arts Council, who issues the licenses in the UK, to be disabused of their opinions. It's amazing how stubborn and obtuse people can get until smacked down by authority.
And some still try to pull shit...and they sometimes get caught. Then it's all, You have to help me! Which we do as best we can. But sometimes that means getting a lawyer familiar with customs rules and regulations to handle the situation, and that ain't cheap. But if you want your $100K worth of books back you got to fork it out.
I once made the mistake when I was at Heritage of trying to be sneaky in order to get a book to a dealer in Italy. It got snagged and took us thousands of dollars and months to get it back, and got another dealer in trouble because he'd sold it to us without the proper paperwork involved. After that, I went strictly by the book...
...so to speak...
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