New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-07-30

The Roman correspondent of 1.-THE London
Morning Post" transcribes from the "Official
Gazette" the new law regulating trade in artis-
tic and archaeological objects. and recently
adopted by the italian Parliament That the au-
thorties are resolved TO protect the artistic in
terests of the state IN the most practical manner
is shown by the following interesting passages
in the correspondents letter:
All artistic or archaeological collections. monu-
ments or Isolated artistic objects belonging 20
the ecclesiastical authorities and 10 corporations
recognized by the state cannot be sold out or
the country, and only be sold in Italy by
one religious or public authority to another, or
10 the state, with the permission of the govern
| ment. a general catalogue of pictures, monu-
ments and archaeological objects is to be drawn
up, part of the catalogue TO include the op-
| jects and collections belonging TO the above
! mentioned corporations and authorities, and the
| other to include all objects and collections be-
| longing to private owners, provided that these
| collections are considered to be of high artistic
value. Objects not included in the catalogue
| may be sold, but only with the permission OF the
| Minister Of Public Instruction. Owners of OBJ
| jectS registered in the catalogue must immedl-
| ately notify the Ministry OF Public instruction
in case of sale or change of ownership. Sellers
must always warn buyers when an object they
are about to purchase is registered In the ma
tionaI catalogue The government Will always
have the right Of presumption; under equal con-
ditions in case of such sales, but the right must
be exercised within six months of the notifica-
ton that a sale is contemplated. When the
right is exercised in regard TO an object for
which an offer has been made from abroad, the
price will be fixed by deductng the export duty
from the amount offered. The export duty is
progressive, and amounts to per cent up to the
| 1900 per cent on the third 1900 II per cent on
the fourth f200 and so on until the maximum OF
| 20 per cent is reached for costly objects.
Article of the law contains provision
which, If properly applied, would stop the prac-
tice Of declaring the value of object to be in
fnitely lower than it really is. Exporters OF
valuable pictures and other objects which may
be worth. say. $1,000 will often declare their
value to be Els or EGO. not so much in order TO
avoid payment of the export duty (Which will. in
any case be paid by the foreign purchaser) as
10 avoid arousing the suspicion of the govern
ment experts that good picture may be going
out Of the country. 1t does not say much for
government experts that, in order to tell a Valu-
able picture from a worthless one, they should
| need 10 a high declaration of price, yet this
is frequently the case, and during the last few
wears many valuable work has easily obtained
q permit for expectation because its value was
declared at f12, instead of Il 200. Article
of the new law. however, says that the govern
rnent will have the right to buy all objects for
which permission to export is requested at the
price declared by their owners, less the export
duty The purchaser of valuable picture will
think twice before declaring its value be only
a few pounds because he will know that in case
of suspicion he would be bound to accept the
few pounds. less per cent, from the govern
rnent as the price OF a picture for which he may
have given FL 900. The net effect of the new law
will probably be to kill the trade in authentic
pictures and TO stimulate the production of
those ingenious forgeries which do not figure in
trade returns as the staple article of italian
commerce. but which certainly bring more
money into the country than the usual COM
modities for expectation.