Fine Art and Antiques When Moving Abroad

An object more than 50 years old needs an individual licence when its value is at or above the limit for its category, unless an open licence covers it. The Open General Export Licence can be used by any exporter in the UK without applying, and you quote its title in the export documents. The Arts Council’s value-limit table (opens in a new window) (2021) sets the limit at £65,000 for most articles over 50 years old, £180,000 for oil or tempera paintings, £12,000 for textiles other than carpets and tapestries, and £10,000 for photographs and for portraits of British historical figures. For some categories the limit is nil, including archaeological material found in UK soil or waters, manuscripts and documents, archives, and hand-drawn architectural, scientific or engineering drawings.

The value counted is the one declared for customs purposes, and a matching set or pair is valued together. The limits are revised from time to time, so check the current table, and ask the Arts Council before the removal date is fixed if a piece sits near a limit or you’re unsure of its age.

The Arts Council’s guidance lists objects that need no export licence at all:

A mixed collection needs each piece checked on its own, and an exemption from the licence is not an exemption from the wildlife and customs rules further down.

Applications are made online through the Arts Council’s Export Licensing Online portal. The 2021 guidance asks you to apply as soon as you know a piece is to be exported and who it is going to, and the form asks for the full provenance and ownership history of the object, meaning where it has been and who has owned it. The expert advisers who look at applications also ask for high-resolution photographs. The receipts and papers on your list are therefore not a formality.

How long it takes depends on whether an expert adviser is asked to look at the piece. The Arts Council’s 2021 guidance gave five business days as the normal time where the applicant showed the object had arrived in the UK legally within the last 50 years, and 28 business days where an expert adviser was consulted and raised no objection. Those are normal times, not promises, and the current figures may differ, so check the Arts Council’s export licensing page and leave room before the removal date.

Occasionally an expert adviser objects because the piece may be a national treasure. The case then goes to the Reviewing Committee, and a decision on the licence can be deferred to give a UK buyer the chance to match the price. Objections are rare. GOV.UK’s annual report of the Reviewing Committee says it considered 20 cases between 1 May 2024 and 30 April 2025. If a piece in your collection is of that kind, tell the partner removal company early, as the shipment may need to wait or go without it.

The licence arrives as a digital copy by email. GOV.UK says the copy must be attached to the export declaration and sent to HMRC’s National Clearance Hub through the Customs Declaration Service, and that you should keep a copy to show Border Force officers if they ask. Someone has to file that declaration, so ask the partner removal company who will, and get the licence to them in good time.

A temporary licence is for pieces that will come back. The 2021 guidance said it would not normally be issued for more than three years, that one extension was possible, normally of no more than three years, and that failing to return the object in time is an offence. For a longer stay it advised applying for a permanent licence. Stricter terms applied to objects found to be national treasures, with no extension available.

The Arts Council’s guidance says an object presented for export without a required licence can be seized, and the exporter and anyone else involved may face penalties including criminal prosecution under the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979. If you find you have already exported something without a licence, it advises making a voluntary written disclosure to the Export Licensing Unit.

Older pictures, furniture, instruments and ornaments sometimes include parts of protected animals or plants: ivory handles, inlay or keys, horn, shell or feather decoration, certain timbers. The rules that cover them come from CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. GOV.UK defines a specimen (opens in a new window) as a living or dead animal or plant, any of its parts or derivatives, or an item made from these, and says you must apply for a permit to move a CITES specimen into or out of Great Britain, including to or from the EU. Moving one without a valid permit or certificate can mean a prison sentence of up to seven years, an unlimited fine, or both.

There is a narrow relief for personal and household effects. GOV.UK says (opens in a new window) you may not need a permit for other personal and household effects that contain a CITES specimen, and that this could include antiques and household furniture. The relief doesn’t apply to live specimens or to specimens with stricter controls, and in some countries you must check the requirements of the country you’re moving the items to. It asks you to contact the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) if you plan to move a personal or household item that you think includes a CITES specimen, at [email protected].

Ivory has guidance of its own. Under the Ivory Act, GOV.UK says (opens in a new window), you need an exemption to deal in items made of or containing ivory from elephant, hippopotamus, killer whale, narwhal or sperm whale, and dealing includes importing or exporting an ivory item to or from the UK to buy it, or for sale or hire. It says you don’t need an exemption if you own such an item and don’t want to deal in it. It doesn’t say whether taking your own ivory item abroad is restricted, so treat the CITES question as open for any piece with ivory and ask APHA.

Musical instruments have a route of their own. GOV.UK says that for a CITES specimen that is a musical instrument you can apply for a musical instrument certificate if the movement is not commercial, and that there is no fee for it.

In practice, go through the collection piece by piece and note anything with ivory, horn, shell, skin, feather or an unidentified wood. GOV.UK points to Species+, the CITES database, for checking a species, and says APHA aims to process an application within 30 days, so allow time. Tell the partner removal company which pieces are affected when you enquire. The permits are matters for you and APHA, and the destination may have its own requirements.

GOV.UK says (opens in a new window) there are no licensing requirements for importing objects of cultural interest into Great Britain, but that imports from an EU member state must comply with the EU export licensing regime, and imports from other countries with that country’s export regime. The licence question therefore mostly arises where the piece is leaving.

Tax and duty are a separate matter. Transfer of residence relief (opens in a new window) can apply if you have lived outside the UK for at least 12 consecutive months and import the goods within 12 months of moving. You must have had the goods in your possession for at least six months before moving, you can’t lend, use as security, hire out or transfer them for 12 months, and you must get HMRC’s approval, by completing form ToR1, before you claim. The relief doesn’t remove the need for licences for restricted goods, and GOV.UK gives firearms and endangered species as examples. Our UK customs documentation checklist covers the paperwork.

Where the relief doesn’t apply, HMRC’s import VAT manual (opens in a new window) says works of art, antiques and collectors’ items imported permanently are valued on a reduced basis that gives an effective VAT rate of 5 per cent. Only works of art as defined in the VAT Act 1994 qualify, and the manual calls the idea of “historical interest” subjective. Which category a piece falls into is a question for HMRC or a customs agent.

EU customs law has a relief for personal property when someone moves their normal residence from outside the EU, but each country applies it through its own customs service. Germany’s customs service, as one example (opens in a new window), says goods released as personal property are exempt from import turnover tax, though not from any excise duty. The conditions are that you kept your normal residence outside the EU customs territory for at least twelve months, used non-consumable goods for at least six months before the move, and clear them within twelve months of it. For twelve months after the declaration is accepted the goods can’t be lent, pledged, hired out or passed to anyone else.

Germany’s customs page also excludes goods with a commercial character and articles used in a trade or profession, apart from portable instruments of the applied or liberal arts, and notes that protected animal species or items made from them are subject to approval requirements or bans. If you buy and sell, or some of the pieces are stock, ask customs before you ship. For furniture and large pieces going to Germany, our guide to shipping furniture to Germany adds that country’s detail.

A separate EU control applies to some cultural goods created or found outside the EU. The Commission says qualifying goods need an import licence or an importer statement, that the electronic system for them has operated since 28 June 2025, and that the importer must show the goods left their country of origin lawfully. Its summary doesn’t mention an exception for people moving home, so ask the destination’s customs authority how it treats a collection of that kind before you ship.

Outside the UK and the EU, reliefs for people moving home, import permits for cultural goods and rules on antiques differ widely, and some countries ask for proof that a piece left its country of origin lawfully. Ask the destination’s customs authority, or the agent the partner removal company uses there, two things in writing: whether a moving-home relief covers art and antiques, and whether any permit or declaration is needed for pieces of that age and kind.

There is also a European standard, BS EN 15946, on packing principles for transporting cultural property. BSI lists it (opens in a new window) as published in 2011 and current, though marked as under review, with owners of cultural property among its intended users. You can ask whether a crate maker follows it or a comparable standard.

Solid wood packaging such as crates, cases and pallets has to meet an international plant health standard, ISPM 15, when it leaves Great Britain. GOV.UK says (opens in a new window) it must be heat treated, to 56°C for at least 30 continuous minutes throughout the wood, or fumigated, and carry the standard mark. Processed wood such as plywood, and raw wood 6 mm thick or less, falls outside the rule, and GOV.UK tells exporters to find out whether the destination adds requirements of its own. Ask whoever builds the crate which applies.