BulgarianCzechEnglishFrenchGermanGreekItalianRomanianSerbian

Jan 28, 2020
4128 Views

Exporting a picture abroad from Bulgaria

Written by

Exporting a picture abroad from Bulgaria

I bought a painting from the Jumayat in Plovdiv and decided to take it to Germany. However, on Twitter, I was shocked that I needed a certificate that it was not of national cultural value or stolen from a museum or collection. So that they don’t give me shares, I decided to go broke. I read the law and documents like this, I called the Plovdiv customs office, who referred me to a customs agency and I read the complaints of a bunch of people online. In the end, it turned out that I had to come to the National Art Gallery or some museum with a completed application form, two pictures of the painting and wait for a while a three-member committee to speak and enter it. Bureaucracy.

I had just decided to go without the certificate in question and bring it out when kunstdrom @ Twitter gave me the idea to ask at the City Art Gallery in Plovdiv. I emailed them and they answered me pretty quickly. It turned out that I just had to bring the painting to the spot on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. No photos or requests. I went the next day, 5 minutes and 5 levs later I had a certificate, a back print on the frame and a legitimate way to export the picture.

All this is quite convenient, but in practice it is a slight blunting of the law. Certification is done in the gallery lobby, and although it has thoroughly reviewed the painting, it was not a three-member commission, but an employee who signed up for the three. I suppose that when they have doubts about any valuable work that any good artist should recognize, more experts are called in. But they did.

On the other hand, yesterday at the border I went through the “Declaring” section and said that I came out with a picture and got a certificate. They asked for my certificate and did not even look at the picture or the stamp on it. In fact, they didn’t look at the certificate, they just got it. With the same success, I could go with a suitcase full of miniatures or a disassembled iconostasis from a small Bulgarian church. And it clearly is. In this sense, the law on registration of movable cultural heritage not only does not work, but even interferes. According to him, every tourist bought a painting or an icon is in violation because no one informed him to register it.
However, I am glad I obeyed the law, but the bitter taste is disturbing and revealing that it made no sense to do so.

thank the: abac077@Flic  yurukov.net

For you betrayed: Stefan Ivanov Proynov

See more: fakeart.eu

Article Categories:
News

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *