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Law 40/2026 raises the threshold, streamlines self-certification, and creates a two-speed system that catches foreign buyers unprepared
You packed the painting. You organised the shipper. Then the customs officer at Malpensa airport told you the paperwork was wrong, the work could not leave Italy, and you had 30 days to sort it out from a country you had already left.
This is the single most common opening to the art export cases that reach Italian lawyers after a UK collector or dealer purchases in Italy. The mistake is almost always the same: assuming that buying the work legally — at auction, from a gallery, from a private owner — also gives you the right to take it home. It does not. Italian cultural heritage law imposes a separate, and often misunderstood, layer of control. Law 40/2026 changed several of the rules. It did not abolish the control.
Law 40/2026, which came into force on 14 April 2026, amends Legislative Decree 42/2004 (the Italian Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code, Codice dei Beni Culturali e del Paesaggio), which has governed Italian cultural property since it came into force. The headline change is straightforward: the permanent export threshold rises from €13,500 to €50,000.
Under the previous regime, any work by a deceased artist, created more than 50 years ago and valued above €13,500, required a full attestato di libera circolazione — the free-circulation certificate issued by the competent regional export office of the Italian Ministry of Culture (Ministero della Cultura, MiC). That process took weeks and occasionally months.
From 14 April 2026, works meeting all three of these conditions may be exported on a self-declaration alone: created by a deceased artist, made more than 70 years ago (the age threshold increases in tandem with the value threshold), and valued under €50,000. The self-declaration is made on the new DVAL 50_MILA form, which replaces the old ALC form for these qualifying works. Critically, the validity period extends from six months to five years. A UK collector who ships works regularly between their London and Italian homes, or a dealer who holds a portfolio of lower-value antiquities, will find the paperwork burden reduced substantially.
The Ministry retains 30 days from receipt of the DVAL notification to impose a precautionary measure suspending the export. If no measure is imposed within that window, the export proceeds on the basis of the self-declaration alone.
If the work was created by a deceased artist more than 70 years ago and the auction price was below €50,000, you now qualify for the DVAL self-declaration route rather than a full ministerial licence. You still submit a notification and you still wait out the 30-day precautionary window. The DVAL is not a free pass — it is a streamlined route. Works created fewer than 70 years ago, works by living artists that have been subject to a cultural interest declaration, or works valued at or above €50,000 follow a different path entirely.
The attestato di libera circolazione — Italy's free-circulation certificate, issued by the regional export offices of the Ministry of Culture — remains fully in force for works that do not qualify for the new DVAL route. Think of it as the full export licence: it confirms that the Italian State has examined the work and found no grounds to prevent its permanent export.
The attestato is mandatory for: works valued at €50,000 or above (regardless of age); works subject to a cultural interest declaration (vincolo), which carries an outright export ban; and works created fewer than 70 years ago by a deceased artist that the Ministry has identified as culturally significant. The review process involves expert examination by the Soprintendenza (the regional heritage authority) and can take 40 to 90 days in practice, with a formal 90-day statutory outer limit. For high-value lots — say, a 17th-century Venetian canvas knocked down at €200,000 — this timeline must be built into any purchase contract or shipping arrangement.
Here is what most articles about Law 40/2026 omit. The reform creates an explicit two-speed system, and the €50,000 threshold does not operate as most foreign buyers expect.
Below the threshold, the DVAL route is faster and the self-declaration valid for five years. Above it, the full attestato process applies — and with it, a 30-day window in which the Ministry can impose a precautionary measure effectively freezing the work inside Italy while it completes its review. That freeze is not a refusal. It is a holding mechanism. The Ministry can extend its scrutiny for a further 60 days after the initial measure.
More importantly: the State's right of pre-emption (diritto di prelazione), enshrined in Article 60 of the Cultural Heritage Code, survives Law 40/2026 entirely unchanged. When a work of cultural interest is sold — at auction, privately, or through a dealer — the Italian State has the right to purchase it at the price agreed between the private parties. The seller must notify the Ministry of every sale of a vincolato work. The Ministry has 60 days from notification to exercise that right. If it does, the sale to the foreign buyer is overridden at the exact price in the contract, with no recourse, no premium, and no compensation beyond the agreed sum.
Res transit cum onere suo — the thing passes with its burden. This ancient principle of Roman private law captures the position precisely: a buyer who acquires a work subject to pre-emption acquires it alongside the State's latent right to take it. The purchase agreement you sign is valid. The State can still substitute itself as buyer.
Unlike in the UK, where the export licensing regime under the Export Control Act 2002 and the associated Arts Council England process operates entirely separately from the transaction itself — and where no government body can override a completed private sale by substituting itself as purchaser — the Italian State can do exactly that. There is no equivalent mechanism in English law. UK collectors who assume that paying a fair market price at Christie's Milan or Sotheby's Italy closes the transaction are mistaken. The price is fixed. The buyer may not be.
This is the question that matters most for UK collectors holding non-Italian art in Italian storage or in a second home. Before Law 40/2026, the Ministry could refuse an attestato for any work present on Italian territory, regardless of the artist's nationality. A Flemish painting, a British watercolour, a German Expressionist canvas — all were potentially subject to the same export controls.
Article 4(5) of Law 40/2026 changes this. Export of a work by a foreign artist may not be refused solely on the basis of its presence in Italy. The Ministry must demonstrate a specific and documented connection between the work and Italian cultural history. General aesthetic quality or long Italian residence of the work no longer suffices. The burden of proof shifts to the State.
In practice, this means a UK collector who purchased a work by a British or American artist at an Italian auction house, or who brought a painting into Italy for restoration and then wishes to repatriate it, now has a statutory ground to challenge an export refusal. That challenge must still be made through an administrative appeal before the regional administrative court (TAR), and on appeal if necessary, but the legal basis is now explicit.
For works on the DVAL self-declaration route: 30 days from notification. No measure in 30 days means the work may leave.
For works requiring the full attestato: the formal review period is 90 days. The Ministry may impose a precautionary block within the first 30 days of receiving the application, then use the remaining time to complete its assessment. If the attestato is refused, the work cannot permanently leave Italy. Temporary export for exhibition, restoration or scientific study follows a separate regime and is not addressed by Law 40/2026.
These are real, binding deadlines. A collector planning to ship a work to London for a sale should allow at minimum 35 days for a DVAL-route item (30 days plus buffer) and at minimum 100 days for a work requiring the attestato. Auction houses and galleries in Italy routinely underestimate these periods when advising foreign buyers at the point of sale.
In our files, the most common error is the seller — not the buyer — failing to notify the Ministry of a private sale of a vincolato work before transfer. The buyer takes delivery, arranges shipping, and only at customs discovers that the 60-day pre-emption clock was never started because the seller's notification was never filed. The buyer then faces a choice between abandoning the shipment, waiting indefinitely, or returning the work while pursuing the seller for breach of contract in the Italian courts. None of those options is quick or cheap. Checking the cultural interest status of a work — via the Ufficio Esportazione of the relevant Soprintendenza before signing any purchase agreement — takes a day and costs nothing.
I bought a painting in Italy valued at €30,000. Do I still need any paperwork to bring it to the UK?
If the work was created more than 70 years ago by a deceased artist, you qualify for the new DVAL 50_MILA self-declaration route under Law 40/2026. You must still file the form and wait 30 days before the work can leave Italy permanently. Works created fewer than 70 years ago, or those subject to a cultural interest declaration, require separate assessment regardless of value.
Can the Italian State take a work I have already paid for?
Yes, if the work carries a cultural interest declaration (vincolo) or falls within the categories subject to pre-emption under Article 60 of the Cultural Heritage Code. The State has 60 days from the seller's notification of sale to substitute itself as buyer at the agreed price. This right was not abolished or modified by Law 40/2026 and applies to sales concluded after 14 April 2026 on the same terms as before.
I have been storing a painting by a British artist in my Italian apartment for ten years. Can Italy refuse to let me export it?
Under the previous rules, yes — and some export offices did refuse on grounds of long Italian presence. Article 4(5) of Law 40/2026 now requires the Ministry to prove a specific connection to Italian cultural history before refusing export of a work by a foreign artist. Long residence in Italy alone is no longer a sufficient basis for refusal. If you receive a refusal, an administrative appeal before the relevant regional administrative court is available on this statutory ground.
HREFLANG BLOCK:
Editorial Team — Panato Law Firm Staff
