Moving art abroad

Most art made in India can travel. A painting bought from a living artist, a print from a gallery, a family portrait from the 1980s: these leave the country like any other possession. The rules bite at two points, age and authorship, and both are set out in one law, the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972. This guide gives the plain facts. For a particular object, ask the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) or a lawyer before you pack.

1. The 100-year line

The Act defines an antiquity to include any coin, sculpture, painting, inscription or other work of art or craftsmanship that has existed for at least 100 years. Manuscripts, records and other documents of scientific, historical, literary or aesthetic value count once they are 75 years old.

The line moves every year. A painting made in 1926 becomes an antiquity in 2026, whatever it looks like and whoever made it.

Owning an antiquity is lawful. Exporting one is not, except by the Central Government or an agency it authorises, under a permit. The Director General of the ASI is the authority for export permits.

2. The nine artists

The Act also creates a second category: art treasures. These are works the government declares to have artistic or aesthetic value, and the Act forbids any such declaration while the artist is alive. In notifications of 1976 and 1979, the government declared the works of nine artists to be art treasures:

1. Abanindranath Tagore
2. Amrita Sher-Gil
3. Gaganendranath Tagore
4. Jamini Roy
5. Nandalal Bose
6. Nicholas Roerich
7. Rabindranath Tagore
8. Raja Ravi Varma
9. Sailoz Mookherjea

Works by these nine may be owned and kept in India, but cannot be exported, however recent they are. A Jamini Roy from the 1950s is not an antiquity, but it still cannot leave.

3. Everything else

A work under 100 years old by any other artist is, under this Act, free to travel. In practice, objects that look old can cause trouble at the airport or port, where customs may refer them to the ASI.

For anything that might be mistaken for an antiquity, such as a painting on old paper, a bronze, a carved panel or a print from the early twentieth century, ask the ASI for a certificate of non-antiquity before you travel. The ASI decides after its experts have seen the object. Its Chennai circle’s form gives the certificate 180 days’ validity, so apply close to your travel date.

4. Registration at home

Separate from export, Section 14 of the Act lets the government notify particular antiquities that must be registered. Anyone who owns or holds a notified antiquity must register it within three months of the notification, or within fifteen days of acquiring it later. If you inherit or buy something very old, check whether it falls under a notification.

5. Penalties

Exporting an antiquity or art treasure without a permit carries imprisonment of six months to three years and a fine. That comes on top of confiscation and penalties under the Customs Act, 1962. Failing to register a notified antiquity carries up to six months, a fine, or both, and the object can be confiscated.

6. Before you pack

1. Find out the work’s date. A dated invoice, signature or exhibition record helps.
2. Check the artist against the list of nine.
3. If the work is over 100 years old, or could pass for it, contact the ASI first.
4. Keep the invoice, photographs and any certificate in your hand luggage, not in the crate.
5. Check the import rules of the country you are going to. They are separate from India’s, and some depend on what an object is made of rather than how old it is.

The law is not hard to follow. It is mostly a question of finding out what you have before customs does.