[Nhcoll-l] FW: REPOST: New law regarding collecting and collections in Germany

[Christian Baars]

Hi Genevieve,

Thank you for sharing this, although I believe there has been a fair amount of misinformation about this piece of German legislation. There was a discussion on the British Geological Curators Group list GEO-CURATORS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK<mailto:GEO-CURATORS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>, and I am aware of Mike Reich et al.'s preprint. I took the opportunity last night to read up on the issue and responded to the GCG list, which am copying below.

While, as a native German speaker, I am able to read the associated debates, being based in the UK I am not involved with the discussion directly, but I hope my little analysis will help clarify the issue a little. I cannot see, from the letter or the spirit of the legislation, how natural science collections will be impacted on negatively. The main concern appears to arise from the fact that, yet again, natural science collections were overlooked and museum folk not consulted during the preparation of this legislation, and may inadvertently be caught up in increased beaurocracy. But the aim of the legislation is, as outlined below, the prevention of looting (particularly in the Middle East) and the illicit trade in cultural objects into Germany, as well as the prevention of loss of important cultural property from Germany.

This was my reply to the GCG discussion:

Perhaps I might offer some linguistic assistance to contribute to the
debate about this new legislation, and hopefully will be able to calm the
waters a little. I have just taken some time to delve into the available
literature, which, I must say, is quite extensive (in newspapers, magazines
and on TV).

Firstly, the new law was passed by the German government last week, so the
petition is now unnecessary.

Secondly, a very public debate in Germany during the summer affected some
alterations to two early, unofficial versions which had been leaked in
July.

A quick summary: the purpose of this legislation is not to limit private
collecting, far from it. The same law has existed since 1955 and protects
German cultural objects of particular importance. The "new" law is merely
an update of this existing legislation. This may be all you need to know,
but if you care to read on I'll outline some details below.

The reason for the update is two-fold:
A) The currently enormous problem of looting and appearance of objects on
the international market of objects from the Middle East (and other areas),
which funds terror organisations and results in a loss of cultural objects
from the countries affected by looting - the update will make it more
difficult to import illegally acquired objects into Germany. Hence an
enhanced requirement for proof of provenance and ownership of objects
imported into Germany. This is regarded as one contribution by the German
government to the international protection of cultural property. There were
already provisions for this under the old law which have now been enhanced.
B) New to the law is that it will, in future, be more difficult to export
cultural property from Germany into European countries. It was previously
already difficult to export into non-European countries, but the
regulations are now stricter. As a general rule, the export of objects on
the "national register of objects of national importance", which are less
than 70 years old and more valuable (in monetary terms) than 300.000 Euros,
will require the approval of the culture minister.

The law covers primarily art and archaeological objects (the financial
value limits of different object classes differ somewhat, so the above is
just a general rule). My own cynical view is that, once again, culture is
equated with paintings and sculptures. However, going into the text of the
law
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.bundesregierung.de_Webs_Breg_DE_Bundesregierung_BeauftragtefuerKulturundMedien_kultur_kulturgutschutz_-5Fnode.html&d=AwIFAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=p1phI-xxHE7G7aLFEoVPeyovfrUColYcIsodKkKM46U&s=SwzoIuIBfuqXSzHpX9mh91WJAo4LUy0x7a2kat8xyqk&e= ,
on page 81 there is a an explanatory note to paragraph 7/2 which may be of
relevance to natural science museums: some objects are regarded in the
context of an entire collection, particularly books, natural science
collections and archives, when being valued. In the example given, this
means that a collection of beetles may be regarded as a single object, even
if an individual specimen would not be regarded worthy of inclusion in the
national register. However, this assumes that someone decided a particular
collection should be included in the national register, which involves a
procedure and assessment by a commission (well, we are talking Germany
here...).

The people who have been most vociferously opposing it are art collectors
who are concerned about a drop in value of their collections; the logic is
that if the market for the paintings is now restricted to Germany, rather
than all of Europe, in essence a limited market, there is less likelihood
of fetching a price as high as at auctions in London.

In my interpretation of the law (as far as I have read it) and the debate
around its implementation, there is nothing to suggest that private
collections will be illegal, or that trade shows will be made impossible.
On the contrary, it appears a very sensible and timely update of a piece of
legislation that had already been around for 60 years.

I hope the above helps.

Best wishes
Christian




From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Tocci (Lewis-Gentry), Genevieve
Sent: 10 November 2015 20:22
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] FW: REPOST: New law regarding collecting and collections in Germany

A colleague sent me this and I don't think I've seen it come across this list. If it has, my apologies.

Genevieve

=================================================
Genevieve E. Tocci (née Lewis-Gentry)
Curatorial Assistant
Harvard University Herbaria
22 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138  U.S.A.
Phone: 617-495-2365  Fax: 617-495-9484
glewis-g at oeb.harvard.edu<mailto:glewis-g at oeb.harvard.edu>

________________________________
From: Forum for marine, freshwater and terrestrial algae. [ALGAE-L at LISTSERV.HEANET.IE] on behalf of Guiry, Michael [michael.guiry at NUIGALWAY.IE]
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2015 4:11 AM
To: ALGAE-L at LISTSERV.HEANET.IE<mailto:ALGAE-L at LISTSERV.HEANET.IE>
Subject: REPOST: New law regarding collecting and collections in Germany
REPOST: This matter could have Europe-wide implications if the EU were to move in the same direction, as has happened previously.

Dear colleagues,

There has been a quite strange movement in Germany and a new law which will strongly impact private and institutional collecting/collections. While I do see the problem with private collecting, specifically when it concerns archaeological artefacts the present formulation of the new law seems to apply for palaeontological, geological and even (!) biological objects too as our colleague from the Stuttgart Museum and the Munich University found out. Apparently the new law will impose numerous additional obligations (loans of scientific material will be needed to be approved of by the ministry; retrospective proof of acquisition; destructive sampling will apparently be prohibited; etc.). [My emphasis, Mike Guiry]

This would seriously impact both biodiversity and palaeontological research. Our German colleagues try to fight the new law and appeal for a revised formulation of the term "national cultural heritage".

More information can be found here (in German unfortunately):
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.researchgate.net_publication_283346678-5FDie-5FKulturgutschutz-2DNovelle-5F-5FBehinderung-5Ffr-5Fdie-5Fwissenschaftliche-5FPalontologie-5Fund-5Fpalontologische-5FSammlungen-5F-5FThe-5Fnew-5Fdraft-5Fact-5Fto-5Fprotect-5Fcultural-5Fproperty-5F-5FObstruction-5Fof-5Fscientific-5Fpalaeontology-5Fand-5Fpalaeontological-5Fcollections&d=AwIFAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=p1phI-xxHE7G7aLFEoVPeyovfrUColYcIsodKkKM46U&s=hY0BNR6RjG-CsbXcog8cnFA7QW6iPW4sDDIHwQEphp4&e= <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.researchgate.net_publication_283346678-5FDie-5FKulturgutschutz-2DNovelle-5F-5FBehinderung-5Ffr-5Fdie-5Fwissenschaftliche-5FPalontologie-5Fund-5Fpalontologische-5FSammlungen-5F-5FThe-5Fnew-5Fdraft-5Fact-5Fto-5Fprotect-5Fcultural-5Fproperty-5F-5FObstruction-5Fof-5Fscientific-5Fpalaeontology-5Fand-5Fpalaeontological-5Fcollections&d=CwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=DIsuBb5t5bVW9F_2zlAmGeRoCQx2KceZP-3k9VQb_6s&m=C32OFdAw8Aka8fUQ8IorOjOR7GhRCPMl1t68AgkxOxI&s=EiD6jIAyG7Pm_UCNzElafMTyLVPGEG1SLZ4LRjrM0qg&e=>
There is also petition against this law:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.openpetition.de_petition_online_fuer-2Dden-2Derhalt-2Ddes-2Dprivaten-2Dsammelns&d=AwIFAw&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=p1phI-xxHE7G7aLFEoVPeyovfrUColYcIsodKkKM46U&s=uLtWpHQVOUzc0_Bbs0kX67R7ljn1b-L1s0dS6RIMjVM&e= <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.openpetition.de_petition_online_fuer-2Dden-2Derhalt-2Ddes-2Dprivaten-2Dsammelns&d=CwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=DIsuBb5t5bVW9F_2zlAmGeRoCQx2KceZP-3k9VQb_6s&m=C32OFdAw8Aka8fUQ8IorOjOR7GhRCPMl1t68AgkxOxI&s=-2I-7NvuWh5TjmhxZ1A6Sa-dOZiaXax4jbfhhh_5ftU&e=>
All the best
Andreas

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Andreas Kroh
Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, Serie A, Editor-in-Chief
Natural History Museum Vienna
Geological-Paleontological Dept.
Burgring 7 - 1010 Vienna - Austria - EU
Tel: 0043-1-52177-576
Fax: 0043-1-52177-459
www.nhm-wien.ac.at/kroh.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nhm-2Dwien.ac.at_kroh.html&d=CwMGaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=DIsuBb5t5bVW9F_2zlAmGeRoCQx2KceZP-3k9VQb_6s&m=C32OFdAw8Aka8fUQ8IorOjOR7GhRCPMl1t68AgkxOxI&s=nTR_efnefDCBTGufdIP7plDdRFB6l1oFZor1EIHmWG4&e=>


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