A guide to the export and import of cultural goods between Russia ...

Romania
Chapter 3: European Union Member States
non-classifi ed (i.e. if they are on the national inventory). The procedures are set out in
Hotarare nr. 518/2004.
For classified goods, the temporary export licence is issued by the Ministry and signed
by the Minister of Culture. For unclassified goods, the export licences are issued by the
County Directorates.
Certain timeframes are stated in the legislation and it should take a maximum of 30 days
to issue an export certificate.
How do I find out if the art object I want to export is of national significance? Is there a Public
Inventory of cultural goods of special interest or importance?
Romanian cultural heritage legislation sets out the procedure for the classification of cultural
goods through a National Database of Movable Cultural Heritage. There are two
categories of protected cultural objects: Treasure (universal – exceptional value) and Fund
(national – outstanding value), neither of which can be exported permanently. At present
cultural objects are all classified as Treasure in one inventory but it is planned to differentiate
between the two types in future work on the classification system.
The present day inventory contains some 7,500 objects, is updated weekly, and can be
consulted online at: http://www.cimec.ro/scripts/PCN/Clasate/Clasate.asp.
According to information from the European Heritage Network database (http://www.
european-heritage.net) the inventory work on cultural heritage in Romania is carried out
by specialists employed by museums, various institutes of art, archaeology, ethnography
and folklore, and socio-human research.
CIMEC is the main public institution of the Ministry of Culture for the documentation of
cultural heritage and keeping the databases of cultural heritage. It receives the dossiers of
classified goods from the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs (Museums, Collections
and Government Guarantees Department). Each object has a dossier with application, expertise,
classification proposal, photos etc. together with a copy of the Order of the Minister
of Culture regarding the classification of the object. CIMEC maintains the records,
updates the database and publishes the inventory of classified goods.
An EU-funded PHARE project for an information system has been initiated which will
allow all those concerned – CIMEC, the customs offices, Ministry of Finance, County
Directorates for Culture and Heritage and the Heritage Police – to have direct online
access to the databases. This will allow them to check the export licence, list of classified
cultural goods, database of stolen art objects etc. This system is expected to be
operational by 2009.
Are there any exemptions for particular cultural goods?
According to Hotarare 518/2004 cultural goods which are exempt from needing an export
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