Art Export Licence and National Treasures: What a Collector Needs Before a Work Leaves Europe

An art export licence is the official permission a state issues before a cultural object may leave its territory, and in October 2026 the question of who grants it moved from the back office to the front page. On 22 October 2026, hours before the Schlumberger evening sale at Sotheby's Paris, three early paintings by Paul Cézanne were withdrawn after France had refused them an export certificate. The same week, a French senate bill proposing to widen the state's hold over works designated national treasures drew its first serious criticism. For a collector bidding from New York, London, Seoul or Sydney, the practical answer is precise: most contemporary lots need no art export licence at all, a defined minority do, and a small number of works never leave. This guide sets out which is which, and what to check before the hammer falls.

Key takeaways:

• Under Council Regulation (EC) No 116/2009, a painting needs an EU art export licence to leave the EU only when it is more than 50 years old, no longer owned by its artist and worth at least €150,000; for prints, drawings and photographs the threshold is €15,000.
• France refused export certificates to three Cézanne paintings (estimate €1.4 million to €2 million) by an order of 13 August 2026; the state then has 30 months to make a purchase offer.
• A French senate bill introduced in March 2026 by senator Jacques Grosperrin would extend national treasure status to works by French artists regardless of age.
• In the United Kingdom, an individual licence is required above £180,000 for oil paintings and £65,000 for most other cultural objects older than 50 years, thresholds frozen since 2002.
• Exporting a French national treasure without authorisation carries up to 2 years' imprisonment and a €450,000 fine.

Why a national treasure bill in Paris reaches a bidder in Seoul or New York

The October 2026 Paris season showed, in a single week, both sides of export control: a record price for a work free to travel and a withdrawal for works that are not. On 22 October 2026, Claude Monet's Iris (1924 to 1925) sold for €50,045,000 including fees at Sotheby's Paris, the highest price ever achieved for a work of art at auction in France. The same evening, three fragments of the decoration Cézanne painted between 1862 and 1864 for the grand salon of the Jas de Bouffan, his family's house in Aix-en-Provence, did not reach the rostrum. La Ferme, Arbres au bord de la rivière and Ciel entre les arbres carried a combined estimate of €1.4 million to €2 million. The city of Aix-en-Provence, with the support of the French Ministry of Culture, is considering acquiring them for the Musée Granet.

The legal chronology matters more than the headline. Applications for export certificates were filed on 17 April 2026, the advisory commission on national treasures met on 16 July 2026, and the Minister of Culture refused the certificates by an order dated 13 August 2026, published in the Journal officiel on 25 August 2026. That refusal is what made the three canvases trésors nationaux (national treasures, works the French state may prevent from leaving France permanently). Only two other refusal orders of this kind appeared in the Journal officiel during 2026: one for Gustave Caillebotte's Boulevard vu d'en haut (1880), designated in February 2026 and barred from export until August 2028, and one for a work by Hans Baldung Grien.

The second development is legislative. A proposal introduced in the French senate in March 2026 by senator Jacques Grosperrin seeks to broaden the definition of a national treasure to works by French artists regardless of their age, and to extend the state's pre-emption to private transactions conducted outside auction houses. As of late October 2026 the text remains a proposal, and its passage, amendment or abandonment will decide how far the reform reaches. The current age threshold has kept contemporary work outside the state's reach; removing it for French artists would bring a living painter's most important sale within the same machinery that took 30 months to conclude that France could not afford a Rembrandt.

That Rembrandt is the reference case. In 2019 France blocked the sale of The Standard Bearer (1636) to keep the option of acquiring it for €165 million. Unable to raise the sum, the state relinquished its right in 2021, and the Dutch state bought the painting for the Rijksmuseum. During those two years the owner could not touch the proceeds, the buyer kept financing in place, and the vendor paid storage and insurance without compensation. In Italy, which operates a comparable mechanism, the president of the auction house Cambi Casa d'Aste estimates that an export restriction cuts the value of a work with major international appeal by 70% to 80%.

For the international collector the lesson is structural: the export status of a lot decides whether the work can travel to the collector's home after the sale. The mechanics of a timed online art auction from start to settlement end with shipping, and shipping begins with the art export licence question.

How the EU art export licence works: categories, thresholds and the originator rule

Council Regulation (EC) No 116/2009 (the EU regulation on the export of cultural goods, codified on 18 December 2008) requires an art export licence for any cultural object covered by its Annex I that leaves the customs territory of the European Union. The art export licence is issued by the competent authority of the Member State where the object was lawfully and definitively located on 1 January 1993, or where it arrived afterwards through lawful dispatch from another Member State or lawful import from outside the EU. Once issued, an art export licence is valid throughout the Union, so a work licensed in Brussels may clear customs in Frankfurt. The regulation also allows a Member State to refuse the art export licence when the object is protected by national treasure legislation, which is how the French, German or Italian regimes plug into the common system.

Two cumulative conditions define the scope for pictures, watercolours, drawings, prints, sculpture and photographs. The object must be more than 50 years old, and it must not belong to its originator, meaning the artist. A canvas still in the painter's studio sits outside the regime whatever its value, and so does a work completed in 1990, whatever its price. Once both conditions are met, the value test applies, assessed at the moment the application is submitted and expressed as the value of the object in the Member State competent to issue the licence.

When an art export licence is required: the value thresholds by category

The thresholds in Annex I are fixed in euros. The table below sets out the categories that concern a modern and contemporary collector.

The asymmetry deserves attention. A screenprint needs an art export licence at one tenth of the value that triggers it for an oil painting. The intuitive reading treats the large canvas as the regulated object and the editioned sheet as free to travel; the regulation sets it the other way round for anything priced between €15,000 and €150,000. A buyer who reads the shipping section of the conditions of sale, or the house's guidance on invoicing, VAT, customs and the insured journey home, should add one line to the list: the medium, the date and the price against these thresholds.

The 50 year line that Pop editions are now crossing

The age condition is a moving boundary, and in 2026 it is moving through the core of the post-war print market. A screenprint executed in 1975 has now passed 50 years; one executed in 1976 crosses the line during 2026 or 2027, depending on its month of execution. The Pop and post-Pop editions of the mid 1970s, from Andy Warhol's portfolios to the West Coast prints of the same decade, therefore move from outside the regime to inside it whenever their price exceeds €15,000. An identical impression of the same edition sold in 2024 for €20,000 needed no art export licence to reach New York; sold in 2026 at the same price, it does.

This is the most practical consequence of the regulation for the segment where most international collectors buy. Refusal requires the object to qualify as a national treasure, and France had published only three refusal orders in the Journal officiel in 2026 by late October, none of them for an editioned print. An art export licence still takes time, it still requires an application by the exporter, and a shipment presented at customs without it is an unlawful export. Planning the application between the hammer and the crate avoids a work sitting in a warehouse for weeks while the paperwork catches up.

National treasure regimes: France's certificate, Germany's register and Italy's discount

Above the common EU layer, every Member State keeps its own national treasure regime, and these regimes decide whether an art export licence is granted or refused. They also govern movement within the EU, which the EU regulation leaves to national law.

France: the export certificate as a passport

The French Code du patrimoine (the heritage code that governs cultural property, archives and monuments) defines national treasures in article L.111-1. The list covers museum collections, protected archives, works classified as historic monuments, the movable public domain and an open category of "other property presenting a major interest for the national heritage from the point of view of history, art, archaeology or knowledge of the French language and regional languages". Article L.111-2 requires a certificat d'exportation (export certificate) before any cultural object in the regulated categories leaves French territory, including towards another EU state. The certificate attests permanently that the object is not a national treasure; for objects no more than 100 years old, it is issued for 20 years and is renewable.

The French thresholds mirror the EU figures for the main categories: paintings more than 50 years old above €150,000, sculptures above €50,000, and watercolours, gouaches and pastels above €30,000. The Minister of Culture must grant or refuse the certificate within four months of a complete application, a deadline that runs only once every supporting document is on file. In a decision of 13 February 2026, the Conseil d'État held that four months of silence from the minister amounts, in principle, to acceptance, unless the file was suspended over a presumption of public ownership or unlawful origin.

Refusal follows a defined procedure. The minister consults the advisory commission on national treasures, the order is published in the Journal officiel with the commission's opinion, and no compensation is due for the refusal itself. A new application for the same object is inadmissible for 30 months, during which the state may make a purchase offer that must reflect prices on the international market. If the state makes no compliant offer, the certificate may no longer be refused on the same grounds. The sanctions are heavy: exporting or attempting to export a national treasure permanently carries up to 2 years' imprisonment and a €450,000 fine.

A national treasure remains saleable within France, and the code regulates that sale. The seller must disclose the refusal of the certificate to the buyer on pain of nullity of the sale, and the new owner must notify the state within three months of acquiring the work. The state also holds a right of pre-emption at public auction, declared at the end of the sale and confirmed within 15 days, which substitutes the state for the successful bidder at the hammer price.

Germany and Italy: registers, quick decisions and the value of a restriction

Germany applies the EU thresholds for exports to non-EU countries under its Kulturgutschutzgesetz (KGSG, the Act on the Protection of Cultural Property), and sets significantly higher thresholds for movement within the EU internal market. A licence is required only when an object falls within an Annex I category and exceeds both its age and its value threshold. Objects entered in a register of cultural property of national significance follow a stricter regime. The competent Land authority must decide on a standard export licence application within 10 working days, against four months for a French certificate.

Italy offers the market's harshest reading of what a restriction does to price: the 70% to 80% discount on internationally appealing works cited above. For a collector, the Italian figure is the clearest argument for asking about export status before bidding, because a restriction discovered after the sale is a loss already paid for.

Leaving Europe after Brexit: the UK licence and the Waverley deferral

Since the end of the Brexit transition period, the United Kingdom is a third country for the purposes of Regulation 116/2009. A work leaving Paris, Brussels or Luxembourg for London needs an EU art export licence whenever it meets the age and value conditions, exactly as if it were going to New York. A work leaving London for the continent needs a UK art export licence under British rules. A collector who splits a collection between a London flat and a Brussels house now faces two systems where there used to be one.

Arts Council England's Export Licensing Unit issues UK licences for objects of cultural interest more than 50 years old. Objects below the thresholds of the Open General Export Licence travel without an individual application; above them, an individual licence is required: £180,000 for oil paintings, £65,000 for most other cultural objects, and £0 for manuscripts and archaeological finds from UK soil. Those figures have been frozen since 2002. An expert adviser, usually a senior curator or academic, then tests the object against the Waverley criteria (closeness to British history and national life, outstanding aesthetic importance, outstanding significance for scholarship), named after the committee chaired by Viscount Waverley that reported in 1952.

The British mechanism works by deferral. When an object meets the criteria, the licence decision is deferred so that a UK institution or buyer may match the price. In August 2026 the UK government placed an export bar on Rembrandt's Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet (1657), valued at £71 million; the initial deferral expires on 26 December 2026, with a further extension available, and the process is designed to conclude within roughly a year. In the latest reported year, 5,745 export applications covered more than 28,000 objects, and only six items were saved for the nation, at a combined value of just over £500,000. Alexander Herman, director of the Institute of Art and Law, puts it plainly: "The system casts an extremely wide net to catch only a few fish."

The United States sits at the other extreme. It imposes no export licensing on national treasures at all, so the American leg of a transatlantic purchase raises no equivalent of the European certificate.

Three lots traced: when an art export licence applies and when it does not

The thresholds become concrete when applied to the price bands where international collectors actually buy. The three scenarios below use the published rules of Regulation 116/2009, a buyer's premium of 20% on the hammer price, and a buyer based outside the EU. The value test uses the value of the object at the time of application; the price paid at auction is the most defensible reference for it.

1. A 1975 Pop screenprint, hammer €20,000. The total paid with a 20% premium is €24,000. The sheet is more than 50 years old in 2026, no longer owned by the artist, and above the €15,000 threshold for prints. An art export licence is required to ship it to New York, London or Seoul. It is not required to ship it to Brussels or Milan, although the national rules of the Member State where it sits apply to that movement.
2. A 1990 painting on canvas, hammer €45,000. The total paid is €54,000. The work is 36 years old, so it falls outside Annex I whatever its price, and no art export licence is needed for any destination. The same work enters the regime in 2041 if its value then exceeds €150,000.
3. A 1968 oil painting, hammer €110,000. The total paid is €132,000. The work is more than 50 years old, but the value sits below the €150,000 threshold for pictures, so no art export licence is required to leave the EU. In the United Kingdom, the comparable test for an oil painting would start at £180,000.

The second and third cases describe most of the modern and contemporary market below six figures: either too young or below the painting threshold. The first case describes the trap. The cheapest object of the three is the only one that needs paperwork. A collector who buys editions from the 1960s and 1970s in the €15,000 to €50,000 band should treat the art export licence as a standard step of every purchase destined for a home outside the EU.

What to ask before you bid: a nine point art export licence checklist

The art export licence question belongs in the due diligence a collector performs before bidding, alongside provenance and condition. The questions below take minutes to ask and remove the most expensive surprise in cross-border buying.

1. Date of execution. Confirm the year, and the month where the catalogue gives it, because the 50 year condition turns on it.
2. Category under Annex I. Identify whether the lot is a painting, a work on paper executed by hand, a print, a photograph or a sculpture; the threshold depends on it.
3. Value against the threshold. Compare the high estimate plus premium with the threshold for the category: €15,000, €30,000, €50,000 or €150,000.
4. Ownership by the artist. A work consigned by the artist sits outside the regime; a work consigned by a collector does not.
5. Location and lawful entry. Ask where the work is physically held and since when, because the Member State of location issues the licence, and documents of lawful import or dispatch support the application.
6. Existing certificates. A French certificate already issued for the object, valid 20 years for works up to 100 years old, removes most of the delay.
7. Designation risk. For works with a strong national connection, ask whether any certificate application has been refused or any designation procedure opened.
8. Destination. Separate EU destinations from third countries, and remember that the United Kingdom is a third country.
9. Materials and other permits. Check whether the work incorporates protected species material that requires CITES documentation, which is a separate permit from the cultural goods licence.

The ninth point rests on a precise rule. Since 19 January 2022, the European Commission has recommended that Member States issue no CITES re-export certificates for ivory items other than important pre-1947 objects going to museums and pre-1975 musical instruments, and sales of pre-1947 worked ivory inside the EU require an Article 10 certificate. The rule reaches any lot that incorporates ivory, including a frame, an inlay or a mixed media object from the 1960s and 1970s.

An art export licence application answers questions of category, date and value; it does not settle authorship. The proof behind a lot is a separate file, and a collector weighing a certificate of authenticity for art against a catalogue raisonné should keep both files together, because an export authority that asks about provenance will ask for the same documents.

FAQ: export licences, certificates and national treasures

Does every artwork bought at a European auction need an art export licence?

No. Under Regulation 116/2009, an EU art export licence is needed only when the work leaves the EU, is more than 50 years old, is no longer owned by its artist and exceeds the value threshold for its category: €150,000 for paintings, €50,000 for sculpture, €30,000 for watercolours, gouaches and pastels, €15,000 for drawings, prints and photographs. A contemporary work made after 1976 falls outside the regime in 2026 whatever its price. Movement between EU Member States follows national rules instead.

How long does a French export certificate take?

The Minister of Culture must grant or refuse a French export certificate within four months of a complete application, under article R.111-6 of the Code du patrimoine. The clock starts only once every supporting document has been received. In a decision of 13 February 2026, the Conseil d'État confirmed that four months of silence amounts in principle to acceptance, unless the file was suspended over doubts on public ownership or lawful origin. For works up to 100 years old the certificate lasts 20 years and is renewable.

What happens if France designates a work I want to buy as a national treasure?

The work keeps its owner and remains saleable, but only for retention in France. The seller must disclose the refusal of the export certificate to the buyer, on pain of nullity of the sale, and the buyer must notify the state within three months of the purchase. For 30 months after the refusal no new certificate application is admissible, and the state may make a purchase offer at international market prices. Permanent export during that period carries up to 2 years' imprisonment and a €450,000 fine.

Do I need a licence to move a work from Paris to Brussels or Luxembourg?

The EU art export licence covers only exits from the EU customs territory, so a Paris to Brussels shipment does not need one. National law still applies: French law requires an export certificate before a cultural object in the regulated categories leaves French territory, including towards another EU state, and France applies the same main thresholds as the EU (€150,000 for paintings more than 50 years old). Germany applies significantly higher thresholds for movement within the EU internal market.

Does Brexit change anything for a work shipped to London?

Yes. Since the end of the transition period, the United Kingdom is a third country under Regulation 116/2009, so a work leaving the EU for London needs an EU art export licence whenever it meets the age and value conditions. A work leaving the United Kingdom needs a UK licence above £180,000 for oil paintings and £65,000 for most other objects more than 50 years old, thresholds unchanged since 2002. A collector moving works between the two must satisfy both systems.

Who applies for the licence, the auction house or the buyer?

The application is made by the person exporting the work, to the competent authority of the Member State where the work is located; in France, the owner or an appointed agent files it with the Ministry of Culture. Fine art shippers file applications as agents for buyers. The buyer should confirm in writing, before bidding, who files, when, and whether the shipping quote includes the application.

How LLB Auction serves collectors buying across borders

LLB Auction sells online at llb-auction.com and lists each sale on Interenchères, so a lot can sell to a buyer outside the European Union. When the buyer is outside the European Union, the export question has to be settled before the work can ship.

Intake and cataloguing. The house photographs, researches and catalogues every consigned lot, and the catalogue states its date, medium and ownership history, the three facts an export authority asks for first. A condition report with photographs is available to any bidder on request before the sale closes.

Terms stated per sale. The buyer's premium is stated in the conditions of each sale, so a collector can compare the total price of a lot with the €15,000, €30,000, €50,000 or €150,000 threshold before placing a bid.

Coordinated shipping. The house coordinates worldwide shipping, free on some sales, and full post-sale support. Ask your questions about export status during the preview. We have answers.

Every sale runs online at llb-auction.com and appears on Interenchères. Register at llb-auction.com to receive each catalogue as it opens, with the date and medium of every lot stated plainly.

Conclusion

The October 2026 Paris season turned a technical subject into a market signal. Three Cézanne paintings left the catalogue because France refused them an export certificate, a senate bill proposes to extend national treasure status to French artists of any age, and the United Kingdom is holding a £71 million Rembrandt under deferral. For most contemporary lots none of this applies: a work made after 1976, or a painting below €150,000, leaves the EU without an art export licence. The exposure lies with editioned prints, drawings and photographs of the 1960s and 1970s above €15,000, and with works whose national connection invites designation.

The collector who checks date, medium, value, location and destination before bidding avoids paying for a work that waits months in a warehouse. Treat the art export licence as a line in the due diligence file, settled before the hammer falls.

Also worth reading:

• How a timed online art auction actually runs, start to settlement
• After the hammer: invoicing, VAT, customs and the insured journey home
• Certificate of authenticity or catalogue raisonné: which proof counts
• Buying art anonymously at auction: what discretion survives the identity checks

Sources:

• Could proposed bill give the French state too much control over privately owned art? : The Art Newspaper, 22 October 2026
• Council Regulation (EC) No 116/2009 of 18 December 2008 on the export of cultural goods : EUR-Lex, 10 February 2009
• Code du patrimoine, Chapitre 1er : Régime de circulation des biens culturels (articles L111-1 à L111-12) : Légifrance, consulted October 2026
• Vente Schlumberger chez Sotheby's : pourquoi trois Cézanne trésors nationaux ont été retirés : Cabinet Kohen Avocats, 24 October 2026
• Three early paintings by Cézanne were withdrawn from an auction at the last minute : Finestre sull'Arte, 22 October 2026
• Trésors nationaux : pourquoi certaines œuvres ne peuvent-elles pas quitter la France ? : Matthieu Sellies, avocat, 5 June 2026
• Certificat d'exportation de biens culturels mentionnés à l'article L. 111-2 du code du patrimoine : Service-Public.fr, consulted October 2026
• The UK casts a wide net when it comes to national treasures but catches few fish : The Art Newspaper, 14 October 2025
• When is an export licence required? : Kulturgutschutz Deutschland, consulted October 2026
• Commission Notice: Revised guidance document on the EU regime governing trade in ivory : European Commission, 30 December 2021