Act on the implementation of the UNESCO Convention of 14 November 1970 on measures to prohibit and prevent the illegal import, export and transfer of cultural property and the implementation of Council Directive 93 /7/EEC of 15 March 1993 on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State *) (Kulturgüterrückgabegesetz-KultGüRückG)

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KultGüRückG

Date of completion: 18.05.2007

Full quote:

" The Law on Cultural Goodness of 18 May 2007 (BGBl. I p. 757, 2547), as defined in Article 2 (8) of the Law of 6 June 2013 (BGBl. I p. 1482).

Status:

Amended by Art. 2 (8) G v. 6.6.2013 I 1482

For more details, please refer to the menu under Notes

Footnote

(+ + + Text evidence from: 24.5.2007, G in Kraft mWv 29.2.2008 + + +) 
(+ + + Official note from the norm-provider on EC law: 
 Implementation of the 
 EWGRL 7/93 (CELEX Nr: 393L0007) + + +) 

  

This Act is intended to implement Council Directive 93 /7/EEC of 15 March 1993 on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State (OJ L 378, 27.3.1993, p. EC No 74), as last amended by Directive 2001 /38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2001 (OJ L 158, 30.6.2001, p. EC No L 187 p. 43).
The G was issued by the Bundestag as Article 1 of the G v. 18.5.2007 I 757 (2547). Section 14 (3) and section 16 (2) are in accordance with. Article 5 (1) of this G in force on the day after the announcement. Incidentally, this law is in accordance with. Article 5 (2) shall apply on the date on which the Convention of 14 November 1970 on measures to prohibit and prevent the illegal import, export and transfer of cultural property (BGBl). 626) for the Federal Republic of Germany enters into force. The Convention is in accordance with. Bek. v. 28.3.2008 II 235 for the Federal Republic of Germany entered into force on 29.2.2008.

Section 1
General provisions

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§ 1 Definitions

(1) The Convention on Cultural Heritage is the UNESCO Convention of 14 November 1970 on measures to prohibit and prevent the illegal import, export and transfer of cultural property (BGBl. 626). (2) Contracting State is any State that has ratified, acceded to, or has accepted the Convention on Cultural Heritage. (3) Protected German cultural property are objects that are subject to the law on the protection of German cultural assets against Emigration in the version of the Notice of 8 July 1999 (BGBl. 1754), as amended by Article 71 of the Regulation of 29 June 2008. October 2001 (BGBl. 2785), as amended by the entry into the list of national valuable cultural goods or the list of national valuable archives, or for which a registration procedure has been initiated and the introduction of the Proceedings have been made public. Unofficial table of contents

§ 2 Central offices

The Federal Government and the Länder shall each designate their central offices.

Section 2
Assertion of the return claim for protected German cultural property

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§ 3 Return claim against other Member States of the European Union

The Länder shall make the right to return cultural property which has been unlawfully transferred to the territory of another Member State of the European Union, in consultation with the central office of the Federal Government in the respective Member State of the European Union in the framework of the rules in force there, out of court and judicial. Unofficial table of contents

§ 4 Return claim against other Contracting States

The right to return cultural property, which has been unlawfully brought into the territory of another Contracting State, shall be invoked by diplomatic means. Unofficial table of contents

§ 5 Property

(1) The property of protected German cultural property, which is returned to the federal territory upon request under the provisions of this law, is governed by the German provisions of the law. (2) Civil-law claims and rights to the Cultural property shall not be affected by return claims within the meaning of § 6.

Section 3
Return claims of other States

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§ 6 Conditions of return duty

(1) An item unlawfully transferred from the territory of another Member State of the European Union to the territory of the territory of another Member State of the European Union after 31 December 1992 shall be returned to that Member State at its request, if:

1.

the subject-matter before the shipment or, in the case of archaeological objects, which were unknown before the shipment, within one year after the competent authority of the Member State concerned becomes aware of the subject matter , by means of legislation or administrative act as a national cultural property of artistic, historic or archaeological value within the meaning of Article 30 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, by the requesting Member State has been publicly classified or has been classified as a national cultural property and the initiation of the procedure has been made public and

2.

the object either:

a)

under one of the cultural objects covered by the Annex to Council Directive 93 /7/EEC of 15 March 1993 on the return of cultural objects unlawfully removed from the territory of a Member State (OJ L 327, 31.12.1993, p. EC No 74), as last amended by Directive 2001 /38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2001 (OJ L 158, 30.6.2001, p. EC No 43), referred to in the above-mentioned categories; or

b)

is entered as part of a public collection in an inventory of a museum, an archive, a religious institution or in the inventory of the conservation-worthy holdings of a library, and the collection itself or the The institution to which it belongs shall be equivalent to a public body according to the legal order valid for it.

(2) An item unlawfully transferred from the territory of a Contracting State to the territory of a Contracting State after 26 April 2007 shall be returned to the State Party upon its request, if:

1.

the subject-matter before the shipment or in the case of archaeological objects which were not known before the shipment, within a year after the competent authority of the State Party concerned has become aware of the subject matter , the requesting State Party has, for religious or secular reasons, considered to be of particular importance for archaeology, history, history, literature, art or science, or initiated a procedure to describe it, and the initiation of the procedure has been made public and

2.

the subject matter of one of the categories referred to in Article 1 of the Convention on Cultural Heritage.

The term 'particularly significant' within the meaning of the first sentence of 1 (1) shall be deemed to have been included in a list of the major public and private cultural assets, individually identifiable by another State Party. The list must be open to the public without unreasonable obstacles in the federal territory. If it is not possible to clarify whether an item which has been designated as particularly significant within the meaning of sentence 1 No 1 before 26 April 2007 has been brought into the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany before or after that date, it shall be deemed to have been introduced after that date. (2a) If the requesting State is prevented by internal unrest, armed conflict or comparable circumstances, the procedure for the procedure referred to in paragraph 1 (1) or the period referred to in the first sentence of paragraph 2 (1) shall be the to initiate the classification or designation or to make public the initiation of the procedure, (3) Rights acquired by the owner or third parties on the basis of legal business or by means of enforcement or execution of the law shall not be subject to the obligation to return. (4) Cultural property has been unlawfully removed from another State if its export has been infringed on the legislation applicable there for the protection of cultural objects. (5) As an illegitimate movement, any such property shall be deemed to have been infringed. No return after the expiry of the period for a temporary legal (6) The costs of the return and the measures necessary to safeguard and conserve the cultural material concerned shall be borne by the applicant State. Unofficial table of contents

§ 7 Return-Creditor, Return debtor

(1) The return claim shall be the Member State of the European Union or State Party from whose territory the cultural property has been unlawfully transferred to the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. (2) The person who has returned to the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany shall be a member of the European Union or a member of the State of the State. other than the actual domination of the cultural property. Unofficial table of contents

§ 8 Implementation and securing of the return

(1) Countries are responsible for the necessary measures to determine the cultural property to be returned, its protection and its return. (2) The authorities responsible for the return of the cultural good are aware of the cultural heritage in which they are responsible for the return of the cultural good. there is an urgent suspicion that it has been unlawfully transferred from another Member State of the European Union or State Party to the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany and is to be returned to that State, so that it shall arrange its holding or arrange for it to be returned to the territory of the order by the competent authority. The holding is to be reported immediately to the central office of the federal government. (3) The held cultural property may only be passed on to other persons or entities with the written consent of the competent central office of the country. (4) It is prohibit, to withhold, to damage or destroy the competent authority, to carry out the cultural property held pursuant to paragraph 2. (5) The holding shall be lifted if none of the bodies to be set up by the central offices in accordance with Section 12 Member States of the European Union or States Parties shall, on time, by return of the to the cultural heritage. The return request shall be made to the competent central office within two months. The period shall begin with the receipt of the notification of compliance with the competent authority of the Member State of the European Union or of the Contracting State from whose territory the cultural property has been unlawfully brought. The claim for return is to be made credible. (6) The retained cultural property shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of national law, provided that it is to be feared that its return to the requesting State should be prevented or that it will be damaged. suffers. Unofficial table of contents

§ 9 Property of a returned cultural property

The property of cultural property shall be determined after the return of the property in accordance with the substantive rules of the requesting State. Unofficial table of contents

§ 10 Compensation

(1) The return debtor shall be obliged to return only by train against a reasonable compensation if the requesting State does not provide evidence that the right to transfer from the goods to the right of return for the acquisition of the cultural good is to be made by the applicant. The territory of the requesting State was known or was unknown as a result of gross negligence. In the assessment of the amount of compensation, consideration should be given to the withdrawal of the use of the crop, with a fair consideration of the interests of the general public and of the resignation ulcer. Compensation shall be paid to the debtor for the loss of profit and for other assets which are not directly related to the withdrawal of the use, if and to the extent that this is used for the purpose of wasting or compensating for a loss of profit. (2) The compensation shall be payable by the requesting State. (3) In writing to the requesting State, the requesting State shall provide in writing that the rights of the return grant to the cultural property shall not be affected by the return, shall: He shall only reimburse him for the costs he has incurred as a result of his (4) If the cultural property to be returned has been given, bequeathed or bequeathed to the return debtor, he or she shall be subject to the duty of due diligence on the part of the Schenker or the deceased. Unofficial table of contents

§ 11 Limitation and deletion of the return claim

(1) The return claim of the requesting State shall be statute-barred in one year from the date in which the authorities of the requesting State become aware of the location of the security and of the person of the resignation of the return. The provisions of the Civil Code of Inhibition and the New Beginning of Limitations shall apply accordingly. However, the return claim shall be issued no later than 30 years after the date in which the cultural property has been unlawfully exported from the requesting State. (2) For cultural property, which is part of a public collection of the requesting State within the meaning of § 6 1 (2) (b), the return claim shall be issued after 75 years. However, this return claim shall not expire if and to the extent that it is not subject to any statute of limitation under the law of the State requesting the return and shall not be subject to any erasure as a result of a lapse of time. (3) The competent authority of the requesting party shall be informed of the State for unlawfully exported cultural property subsequently an effective export licence, its return can no longer be required. The same shall apply if, on the basis of a change of law which it has entered into force, the exportation is obtained in legality. Unofficial table of contents

§ 12 Tasks of the Federal Government and the Central Office of the Länder

(1) The central offices of the Länder shall, in connection with the return of cultural property of the Member States of the European Union or States Parties, which are illegal in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, carry out the following tasks in particular:

1.

the investigation requested by the requesting State for a particular cultural property which has been unlawfully removed from its territory and the identity of its owner or owner. In order to facilitate the investigation, the application shall be accompanied by all the necessary information, in particular on the publication as a national valuable cultural property and the actual or presumed place of the cultural heritage;

2.

the facilitation of the verification by the competent authorities of the requesting State whether the subject-matter of the requesting State constitutes a cultural property, provided that the review is carried out within two months of the date of notification referred to in paragraph 2 No 1 or information on the diplomatic route shall be made. Where such verification is not carried out within the time limit laid down, the obligations set out in points 3 and 4 shall be deleted;

3.

the implementation and, if necessary, the arrangement of the necessary measures for the physical preservation of the cultural heritage in cooperation with the State concerned;

4.

the adoption of the necessary provisional measures in order to prevent the cultural property from being withdrawn from the return procedure.

(2) In addition, the central offices of the Member States shall carry out the following tasks with regard to the return requests of Member States of the European Union:

1.

to inform the Member States concerned of the European Union in the event of a cultural asset being found, where there is reasonable grounds for presumption that the cultural property is unlawfully removed from the territory of another Member State of the European Union;

2.

the perception of the role of a mediator between the owner or the owner and the requesting Member State of the European Union on the question of return. The national law may provide that, irrespective of the collection of the application, the claim for return is first clarified in the arbitration proceedings, provided that there is agreement between the return creditor and the return debtor.

(3) With regard to return requests from States Parties which are not Member States of the European Union, the Federal Foreign Office shall, in cooperation with the Central Office of the Federal Republic, take particular account of the tasks described in paragraph 2 above. diplomatic path true. Unofficial table of contents

Section 13 Return action of the requesting State

(1) Regardless of the possibility of seeking an amicable agreement on return, the requesting Member State of the European Union or State Party may, on the basis of the administrative judicial remedy, return the debtor to the return debtor. (2) A complaint may be brought three months after the date of receipt of the return request from the competent central office. (3) The burden of proof for the existence of the right to return, the claim for compensation of the right to compensation, shall be accompanied by a description of the object in question and the documents and explanations required for the proof of the conditions. The court of the application shall also decide on the compensation to be granted to the defendant. (5) Section 6 (6) shall remain in the court of the claim. (6) The person entitled shall be free, without prejudice to the actions of the State, to: To enforce rights against the owner on the ordinary course of law.

Section 4
Rules for the protection of important cultural property of other States

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§ 14 Approval requirement

(2) The list of valuable cultural assets of the Contracting States shall be provided by the Federal Republic of Germany or the United States of the European Union for the protection of the cultural heritage of the States Parties. Commissioned by the Federal Government for Culture and Media, and supplemented as required. The task can be transferred to the central office of the federal government. It shall contain the individually identifiable objects designated by the States Parties as being particularly important within the meaning of Article 1 of the Convention on Cultural Heritage and the indication as to whether the export from the State of origin shall be For reasons of cultural property protection, it is generally prohibited. Each registration and its modification is made public in the Federal Gazette. (3) The Federal Government is empowered to adopt, by means of a regulation without the consent of the Federal Council, provisions concerning the procedure and the conditions of the Create, manage, and update the directory. Unofficial table of contents

§ 15 Approval

(1) The authorisation shall be granted if the export of the item from the State of origin is not prohibited. (2) The central office of the Federation shall be responsible for the granting of the authorization. Unofficial table of contents

Section 16 Participation of customs authorities

(1) The direct transfer of goods from third countries and the export of cultural assets, which

1.

the Law on the Protection of German Cultural Heritage against Abmigration, or

2.

a system of import or export adopted by the European Communities

(2) The Federal Ministry of Finance is authorized, in agreement with the member of the Federal Government responsible for culture and the media, by means of a legal regulation without Consent of the Federal Council to the details of the procedure referred to in paragraph 1, in particular on the duties to be displayed, notifications, information and the performance of ancillary services, as well as for the payment of the inspection in commercial documents and other Documents and the payment of customs certification and of the withdrawal of free samples, and Rehearsals. Unofficial table of contents

Section 17 Confiscation and confiscation by customs offices

(1) In the context of the customs supervision pursuant to Section 16 (1) of the Regulation, if there is a doubt as to whether the placing of objects in accordance with Article 14 (1) requires approval or if the submitted authorization is lawful, the competent customs office shall be entitled to: At the expense of the right to dispose of the goods until the clarification of the doubts, take into custody or commission a third party with the safekeeping. In order to clarify the doubts, the customs office may submit a certificate to an independent expert body or person recognised by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, to be certified by the right of disposal. require that they are not objects contained in the list within the meaning of Article 14 (2). (2) It is established at the time of the customs treatment that objects without the prescribed permits to enter the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany They shall be seized by the competent customs office. If the required authorisations are not submitted within one month of the seizure, the competent customs office shall assign the confiscation; the period may be extended appropriately, up to a maximum of six months. (3) If goods are confiscated or confiscated, the costs incurred as a result of this shall be imposed on the importer, in particular for the storage, transport or return of the goods. If it cannot be determined, it shall be imposed on the sender, carrier or orderer, if the circumstances that caused the seizure or confiscation were known to him. (4) The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture or the Federal Government and the media shall inform the independent experts and persons within the meaning of the second sentence of paragraph 1 in the Federal Gazette. Unofficial table of contents

§ 18 Recording obligations in the art and antique trade as well as in the auctioneer business

(1) The operator of an art or antique trade or an auctioning undertaking shall keep the following records in the case of the acquisition and disposal of the cultural property referred to in paragraph 2:

1.

a description appropriate to the identification of the identity of the cultural good;

2.

the indication of its origin, where known,

3.

the name and address of the transferor, the supplier, the transferor and the contracting authority; and

4.

Prices for purchase and sale.

In doing so, he has to identify the person supplying the goods and the acquirer. Records of the accompanying documents and documents shall be kept in the premises for a period of ten years. (2) For the purposes of the first sentence of paragraph 1, the cultural property shall be subject to a value of at least EUR 1 000;

1.

which belongs to one of the categories listed in Part A of the Annex to Council Regulation (EEC) No 3911/92 of 9 December 1992 on the export of cultural goods (OJ L 378, 27.12.1992, p. EC No L 395 p. 1, 1996 No 30), as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 806/2003 of 14 April 2003 (OJ L 297, 15.7.2003, p. EU No 1) has been amended, as amended, and

2.

the value of which is at least equal to the groups of values set out in Part B of the Annex to Regulation (EEC) No 3911/92.

(3) A recording obligation referred to in paragraph 1 shall not be required where, in the light of general accounting obligations, records are kept and kept in accordance with the Commercial Code or the Tax Code, which shall be referred to in paragraph 1. Meet requirements. Unofficial table of contents

§ 19 Right of information and access

The rights of access and access to the competent authorities and their agents for the implementation of this section shall be determined by the commercial order.

Section 5
Criminal and penal rules

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Section 20 Criminal Code

(1) With a custodial sentence of up to three years or a fine shall be punished, who

1.

, contrary to Article 8 (4), carries out or withheld from the competent authority, held cultural property,

2.

is damaged or destroyed in accordance with Section 8 (4) of the preserved cultural property, or

3.

without permission pursuant to § 14 para. 1, an object is placed in the federal territory.

(1a) In the cases referred to in paragraph 1 (2), the criminality shall remain unaffected in accordance with Section 304 of the Criminal Code. (2) With a custodial sentence of up to five years or a fine, he shall be punished who, in the cases referred to in paragraph 1, has a commercial or habitual residence. . Unofficial table of contents

Section 21 Penal rules

(1) Contrary to the law, those who intentionally or negligently act

1.

contrary to § 18 (1) sentence 1, a record is not made, not correct, not complete or not in good time, or

2.

Contrary to Section 18 (1) sentence 3, a record shall not be kept or not kept for the prescribed period.

(2) The administrative offence can be punished with a fine of up to fifty thousand euros. Unofficial table of contents

Section 22 The powers of the customs authorities

The competent administrative authorities and public prosecutors may, in the case of suspected offences and offences under this law and the law on the protection of German cultural assets, investigate an investigation (§ 161 sentence 1 of the The Code of Criminal Procedure) shall also be carried out by the main offices and the customs authorities. Section 21 (2) to (4) of the Foreign Trade Act shall apply accordingly.