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

CHAPTER
Chapter 3: European Union Member States
Slovenia
Cultural ties between Slovenia and Russia are long-standing and precede the establishment
of state relations. This circumstance is most clearly reflected in the traditional ceremony
at the Russian Orthodox Chapel near the Vršič mountain pass in the Slovenian Alps
where, each year late in July, Slovenians and Russians gather in an emotional ceremony
to pay their respects to the memory of Russian soldiers who perished there as Habsburg
prisoners of war in an avalanche during World War I.
The establishment of diplomatic relations between Ljubljana and Moscow in 1992 allowed
for the creation of a formal framework for the systematic promotion of cultural contacts.
The aim is to deepen the existing cooperation in the classical arts, especially in theatre
and ballet (both the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky theatres are regular performers at the
Ljubljana Summer Festival), and extend them to the more ‘popular’ contemporary spheres
as well. In this sense it is important to draw attention to the retrospective exhibition of
works of the preeminent modern Slovenian painter France Mihelič at the State Tretyakov
Gallery in 2003 and the regular appearances in Russia of the Slovenian avant-garde music
band Laibach, which held its most recent concert in Moscow in 2005.
Slovenia and Russia are also interacting within the framework of the Forum of Slavic
Cultures, which was established in Ljubljana in 2004. The goal of the initiative is to help
deepen the cultural dialogue between Slovenia and Russia, as well as among the rest of
the Slavic-speaking countries. This is all the more important in light of the fact that, with
its enlargement in 2004, the European Union acquired a new quality, obtaining for the first
time also a ‘Slavic dimension’.
WHAT LEGISLATION APPLIES TO THE IMPORT/EXPORT OF CULTURAL GOODS
BETWEEN SLOVENIA AND RUSSIA?
NATIONAL
Protection of Cultural Heritage Act (Ur.l. RS, 7/99)
Rules on the Procedure for Issuing Export and Transfer Licences for Objects of Cultural
Heritage (Ur.l. RS, 48/2004, 106/2006)
Rules on Identifying Cultural Heritage Objects (Ur. l. RS, 73/2000)
INTERNATIONAL
European Community legislation is applicable as explained in Chapter 2
UNESCO Convention of 1970 (in force for Slovenia since 1992) and UNIDROIT Convention of
1995 (Slovenia ratifi ed in 2004)
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