Shopped - businessman with an icon
A British businessman organising a major conference in Poland has warned that he will never do business here again, after being detained by border police at Warsaw airport and accused of illegally smuggling an antique icon he had bought from a dealer.
John French, director of British Sulphur Publishing, was in Warsaw in mid-January to prepare for a major nitrogen industry conference he is staging here. He has complained in a letter to the Business Journal that on the day of his departure, he visited antique dealer Desa Unicum on Nowy Świat and acquired a small icon for zł. 700. He was not aware, and insists he was not informed, that a law dating from 1962 prohibits the export of antique objects produced before 1945. The shop's manager, when questioned by the Business Guide, pointed to stickers forbidding certain kinds of exports and insisted they warn all foreign customers of the law.
French put the icon in his luggage, unaware of the irregularity. At the airport, he was detained when a baggage search revealed the icon. He spent the next four hours waiting for an interpreter before finding out exactly what he was accused of. "I will never run a conference again in Poland because of the treatment I received. I am an international businessman, not a smuggler," he said.
The head of the Sejm's parliamentary sub-commission dealing with cultural matters, Jan Byra (SLD), defended the legislation. "We must protect the national heritage," he said. "There is not too much of it left."
Krzysztof Konieczny of the Association of Antique Dealers, also defended the law as a general principle, but he did say that a new bill which is being prepared by the ministry of culture to adjust the 1962 law nevertheless ought to reflect more sensibly the overall market in antiques and objets d'art. "It is absurd to align an old icon and a Matejko painting, as the act does at present," he said.
His colleague Jerzy Huczkowski added that the association had been lobbying the ministry of culture and MPs to have the draft bill amended in respect of the ban on pre-1945 exports so that it is based on the value of the item. The association suggests that the borderline should be set at €1,000. The comparative figure for France is €200,000, while in the UK there is no limit of any kind, unless the government explicitly imposes the need for an export licence on a specific item. For the present, however, the new draft law on protecting the national heritage introduces no radical changes and export controls remain much as they are now. MPs dealing with the issue have also admitted no changes, despite the lobbying by the antique traders.
Legal experts pointed to a possible hitch after Poland joins the European Union. A raft of EU legislation aimed at creating a seamless internal market deals with "freedom of movement," and that includes the right of individuals to move about and cross borders, in general, with their personal property. The ministry of culture said it was not aware of any need to reflect EU legislation in the draft bill, as did Jan Byra of the parliamentary subcommission. However, there is a provision in the existing legislation which allows export of sensitive items, providing the necessary formalities are complied with.
French is so upset by his treatment by the authorities that he is no longer interested in recovering his icon. Because of his detention, he missed his plane and had to spend another night in a hotel. A spokesman for the authorities at Okęcie Airport said that French could have made an application stating that he broke the law innocently because he was unaware of its provisions. He would receive an answer within a month. If the decision was positive, he could address a further application, attaching two photographs of the item and send it to the Centre for Art Collection Protection.
A yes or no would be supplied within the space of a further month. The Business Journal talked to a German businessman and his Polish wife who recently left the country to settle in London. They had acquired a number of pre-1945 antiques and went through the procedure of officially applying for export permission. This was duly received, although they described the bureaucracy as "complicated and time-wasting."
Meanwhile, the total value of confiscated items accumulated at Okęcie Airport during 2002 amounted in all to just zł. 25,000, with each item on average worth a mere zł. 80. The fate of French's icon now depends entirely on him. In legal terms, he still stands accused of illegally trying to export it. If he does nothing to retrieve it, the icon will eventually end up in the hands of the state treasury, which will auction it and keep the proceeds. The conference, Nitrogen 2003, goes ahead at the Sheraton Warsaw on February 23rd to 26th.
John French, director of British Sulphur Publishing, was in Warsaw in mid-January to prepare for a major nitrogen industry conference he is staging here. He has complained in a letter to the Business Journal that on the day of his departure, he visited antique dealer Desa Unicum on Nowy Świat and acquired a small icon for zł. 700. He was not aware, and insists he was not informed, that a law dating from 1962 prohibits the export of antique objects produced before 1945. The shop's manager, when questioned by the Business Guide, pointed to stickers forbidding certain kinds of exports and insisted they warn all foreign customers of the law.
French put the icon in his luggage, unaware of the irregularity. At the airport, he was detained when a baggage search revealed the icon. He spent the next four hours waiting for an interpreter before finding out exactly what he was accused of. "I will never run a conference again in Poland because of the treatment I received. I am an international businessman, not a smuggler," he said.
The head of the Sejm's parliamentary sub-commission dealing with cultural matters, Jan Byra (SLD), defended the legislation. "We must protect the national heritage," he said. "There is not too much of it left."
Krzysztof Konieczny of the Association of Antique Dealers, also defended the law as a general principle, but he did say that a new bill which is being prepared by the ministry of culture to adjust the 1962 law nevertheless ought to reflect more sensibly the overall market in antiques and objets d'art. "It is absurd to align an old icon and a Matejko painting, as the act does at present," he said.
His colleague Jerzy Huczkowski added that the association had been lobbying the ministry of culture and MPs to have the draft bill amended in respect of the ban on pre-1945 exports so that it is based on the value of the item. The association suggests that the borderline should be set at €1,000. The comparative figure for France is €200,000, while in the UK there is no limit of any kind, unless the government explicitly imposes the need for an export licence on a specific item. For the present, however, the new draft law on protecting the national heritage introduces no radical changes and export controls remain much as they are now. MPs dealing with the issue have also admitted no changes, despite the lobbying by the antique traders.
Legal experts pointed to a possible hitch after Poland joins the European Union. A raft of EU legislation aimed at creating a seamless internal market deals with "freedom of movement," and that includes the right of individuals to move about and cross borders, in general, with their personal property. The ministry of culture said it was not aware of any need to reflect EU legislation in the draft bill, as did Jan Byra of the parliamentary subcommission. However, there is a provision in the existing legislation which allows export of sensitive items, providing the necessary formalities are complied with.
French is so upset by his treatment by the authorities that he is no longer interested in recovering his icon. Because of his detention, he missed his plane and had to spend another night in a hotel. A spokesman for the authorities at Okęcie Airport said that French could have made an application stating that he broke the law innocently because he was unaware of its provisions. He would receive an answer within a month. If the decision was positive, he could address a further application, attaching two photographs of the item and send it to the Centre for Art Collection Protection.
A yes or no would be supplied within the space of a further month. The Business Journal talked to a German businessman and his Polish wife who recently left the country to settle in London. They had acquired a number of pre-1945 antiques and went through the procedure of officially applying for export permission. This was duly received, although they described the bureaucracy as "complicated and time-wasting."
Meanwhile, the total value of confiscated items accumulated at Okęcie Airport during 2002 amounted in all to just zł. 25,000, with each item on average worth a mere zł. 80. The fate of French's icon now depends entirely on him. In legal terms, he still stands accused of illegally trying to export it. If he does nothing to retrieve it, the icon will eventually end up in the hands of the state treasury, which will auction it and keep the proceeds. The conference, Nitrogen 2003, goes ahead at the Sheraton Warsaw on February 23rd to 26th.
