A work bought in Dubai needs a Dubai permit to leave, and the EU asks its age before its price.

Bringing a work home from a fair in Dubai runs on different rules from sending one out of Europe. Each end has its own law, its own authority and its own first question.

Published by ArtisDomus, written by Polina Surina.

Three questions decide the route. What does the EU ask of a work arriving from outside? What does the emirate of Dubai ask of a work leaving it? And what do you pay when the crate lands? France serves as the example.

Art arriving in the EU from outside falls under Regulation (EU) 2019/880 of 17 April 2019 on the introduction and the import of cultural goods. It does not apply to works created or discovered in the EU customs territory (art. 1). A European work that goes to a fair and comes home is outside the Regulation, whatever it is worth. A work made anywhere else is inside it.

Three terms carry the rest (art. 2). Cultural goods are items of importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science, as listed in the Annex. Introduction is any entry into the EU customs territory under customs supervision. Import is release for free circulation, or placing goods under a special procedure such as storage, specific use or inward processing. A purchase shipped home to a private address is an import.

The basic ban has no threshold at all (art. 3(1)). Cultural goods listed in Part A of the Annex may not be brought in if they left the country where they were created or discovered in breach of its laws and regulations. Part A sets no price limit. For objects of artistic interest, such as pictures and paintings made entirely by hand and original works of statuary art, it sets no age limit either. So the ban covers a canvas painted last year.

Leaving the EU works differently. There, an export licence under Council Regulation (EC) No 116/2009 depends on the object’s age and on a money threshold. Most of a living collection drops out on age before value comes into it. Coming in, the first test is whether the work left the country where it was made lawfully. Knowing one set of rules tells a buyer little about the other.

Goods listed in Parts B and C of the Annex can be imported only with an import licence under art. 4 or an importer statement under art. 5 (art. 3(2)). The licence or statement is given to customs under art. 163 of the Union Customs Code, Regulation (EU) No 952/2013. If the goods enter a free zone, it is given when the goods are presented there under art. 245(1) of that Regulation (art. 3(3)). The number of items is declared in the supplementary unit the Annex sets (art. 3(8)).

The Annex sorts objects with two age limits and one value limit.

A work placed under temporary admission (art. 250, Union Customs Code) to be shown at a commercial art fair needs no import licence. An importer statement is given instead (art. 3(5)). If the work is later placed under another customs procedure within the meaning of art. 2(3), an import licence under art. 4 is required.

The fair is defined exactly (art. 5, Implementing Regulation). It is a limited-time trade event, other than a public auction, where cultural goods are shown with a view to a possible sale. It is open to the general public, whether or not they intend to buy. And it is advertised in advance in electronic or conventional media of wide circulation, such as newspapers, periodicals or exhibition catalogues.

Note which way the exception runs. It covers a work brought into the EU to stand on a stand inside the EU. A work bought at a fair outside the EU and shipped to a European address falls outside it. That work comes in for release for free circulation and faces the ordinary tests: Part A first, then age and value.

The other exception is narrower still. Art. 3(4)(c) exempts temporary admission for education, science, conservation, restoration, exhibition, digitisation, performing arts, research by academic institutions, or cooperation between museums or similar institutions. Art. 3 of the Implementing Regulation limits the exhibition case to temporary loans by museums and similar institutions in third countries. The goods must belong to their permanent collections, and the loan must go to a public museum or similar institution in the EU. The exemption therefore does not reach a private buyer or a private home.

These are the emirate of Dubai’s own rules, from version 9 of the Dubai Customs Service Guide.

The declaration comes first. The Submit Customs Declaration service covers goods moving in and out of the emirate under five regimes: import, export, transit, transfer and temporary admission. It needs four documents: invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, and a permit from the restriction entities. Export fees run from AED 15.00 to AED 100.00, depending on the declaration type and the shipping channel. An export declaration from local to the rest of the world costs AED 100, whether or not the goods are dutiable (Appendix (B)). A knowledge and innovation fee of AED 20 is added to any service costing AED 50 and above.

The fourth document is the one that catches a painting. Appendix (F) lists the Restricting Authorities. These are the competent authorities that approve the release of goods restricted under the Common Customs Law or any other law or regulation applicable in the country. Against the National Media Council it names printed books, newspapers and similar products, and works of art, collectors’ pieces and antiques. So in Dubai a work of art is a restricted commodity, and its permit comes from a media regulator.

Abu Dhabi is different. Its table of restricted and banned commodities does not name artworks. Each emirate keeps its own list, so what a shipper knows from one does not carry over to the other.

The guide also says who may file the declaration. Any company with a customs business code may file it. An agent with a Dubai Economic Department clearing and forwarding licence may file it for the owner. The agent needs a customs business code and the owner’s authorisation in the customs system. Individuals may clear goods imported or exported as personal effects.

If the work on the stand came in under an ATA carnet, no deposit applies. Temporary admission then lasts six months or the validity of the carnet, whichever is shorter. Without a carnet, temporary admission needs a deposit equal to the customs duty under the tariff. It is refunded when the goods are re-exported within the time allowed.

Zero-rating of exports is set by art. 30 of the Executive Regulation of Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on Value Added Tax. The Executive Regulation was made by Cabinet Decision No. 52 of 2017 and amended by Cabinet Decision No. 100 of 2024. It is federal law, so it applies across the United Arab Emirates, Dubai included.

Clause 1 covers direct export, where the seller ships. The zero rate applies if two conditions are met. First, within 90 days of the supply, the goods are physically exported outside the Implementing States, or put into a customs suspension regime under the GCC Common Customs Law. Second, the exporter keeps proof. That is a customs declaration and commercial evidence of export, or a shipping certificate and official evidence of export. For goods in customs suspension, it is a customs declaration proving the suspension.

Clause 2 covers indirect export, where the buyer arranges transport. The same 90 days apply, under an arrangement the supplier and the overseas customer agree at or before the date of supply. The customer or its agent gets the same evidence and gives the supplier a copy. The goods are not used or altered between supply and export, except as needed to prepare them. And the goods must not leave the State with a passenger or crew member of an aircraft or ship (clause 2(d)). So hand carriage is excluded, except for the departure-area case in clause 8.

Clause 4 defines the two kinds of evidence. Official evidence can be an export certificate from the State’s customs departments. It can be a clearance certificate from them, or from the State’s competent authorities after they verify departure. Or it can be a document or clearance certificate from the destination country’s competent authorities confirming the goods arrived. Commercial evidence is a document from sea, air or land transport companies and agents proving the goods were moved and left. It includes the air, sea or land waybill or manifest.

The evidence must identify six things (clause 5): the supplier, the consignor, the goods, the value, the export destination, and the mode of transport and route. A private buyer should check this list before the crate leaves.

Two more clauses decide where the risk sits. Moving goods into a Designated Zone from elsewhere in the State, or supplying goods to one, is not an export (clause 3). So putting the work into a zone does not stop the clock. If the export misses the 90 days, or a longer period the Authority allowed under clause 7, the supply is taxed as if made in the State (clause 9). Clause 7 allows that extension only on the supplier’s written application, and only in the two cases it names.

In practice the risk is split. The zero rate is the gallery’s, and the evidence that keeps it comes from the buyer’s shipper. A buyer who carries the work away, or leaves it in a zone to think it over, puts the rate at risk. The gallery will then have to charge VAT.

Temporary admission lets non-EU goods meant for re-export be used in the EU with total or partial relief from import duty (art. 250(1), Union Customs Code). Four conditions apply (art. 250(2)). The goods must not be meant to change, except for normal wear from their use. They must be identifiable. The holder must be established outside the EU customs territory, unless otherwise provided. And the relief requirements in customs law must be met.

Customs set the period, long enough for the authorised use (art. 251). Unless otherwise provided, the maximum for the same purpose and the same authorisation holder is 24 months. That limit holds even if the procedure was closed and the goods placed under temporary admission again. In exceptional circumstances, a reasonable extension may be granted on a justified application. The total may not exceed 10 years, except after an unforeseeable event.

Works of art are named in art. 234 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, on goods for events or for sale in certain situations. It gives total relief from import duty for works of art, collectors’ items and antiques imported for exhibition with a view to possible sale. It gives the same relief to goods other than newly made ones imported for sale at auction. As amended by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/1063, it lets the applicant and the holder be established in the EU customs territory.

A buyer cannot use any of this. Temporary admission is for goods meant for re-export, and a work bought to keep is meant to stay. The buyer’s procedure is release for free circulation, and that is when the charges fall due.

One relief does exist, for a work that left Europe and comes back. On application, goods first exported from the EU as Union goods are free of import duty if they return within three years and are declared for free circulation (art. 203). The period can be extended for special circumstances. Relief applies only if the goods come back in the state in which they left, and documents must show the conditions are met. A work that went out for a show and comes home unsold can use this route. A work bought on the stand cannot.

Art. 70(1) fixes the figure everything is calculated from. The customs value is based first on the transaction value: the price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the EU. The invoice written on the stand is that price. It is the base for the tax as well as for any duty.

The EU charges no customs duty on works of art. Every subheading of Chapter 97 of the Combined Nomenclature has a conventional rate of free. That rate applies to goods originating in a country party to the GATT or with a most-favoured-nation clause. What remains on entry is import VAT.

EU law leaves the rate to each Member State. Under art. 94(2) of Directive 2006/112/EC, the import rate is the rate for supplies of like goods in that Member State. Art. 1(5) of Council Directive (EU) 2022/542 replaced that paragraph and added a new art. 94(3). Art. 94(3) covers works of art, collectors’ items and antiques in Annex IX, Parts A, B and C. As an exception to paragraph 2, a Member State that taxes their supply at the standard rate may apply a reduced rate on import. That rate is the one in the first subparagraph of art. 98(1), and it applies to those goods within that State.

The same Directive added point (26) to Annex III, covering supplies of works of art, collectors’ items and antiques in Annex IX, Parts A, B and C. It also deleted Articles 102 and 103 (art. 1(12)). Member States had to adopt the measures by 31 December 2024 and apply them from 1 January 2025. So the VAT rate on imported art depends on the Member State where the crate lands. The same painting shipped to two Member States can be taxed at two different rates.

France is the example. Under Article 278-0 bis of the Code général des impôts, VAT is charged at the reduced rate of 5.5 per cent on the items it lists. Its division I covers supplies of works of art, collectors’ items and antiques within the second subparagraph of 1° of I of article 297 A. The exception is where the taxable amount is set under that same article. This wording has been in force since 1 March 2026.

Article 278-0 B, I extends that rate to the border: intra-Community acquisitions and imports take the rate for supplies of the same goods. This wording has been in force since 1 March 2025. So a work of art imported into France is taxed at 5.5 per cent, subject to the margin-scheme exception in article 278-0 bis, I.

Article 292 sets the base the rate applies to. It is the customs value under the EU rules in force. Added to it are taxes, duties, levies and other charges due because of the import, except VAT itself. Also added are incidental costs such as commission, packing, transport and insurance, up to the first place of destination in France. That place is the one shown on the transport document the goods are imported under. On import, the tax is triggered and falls due at the moment the goods are treated as imported under 2 of I of article 291 (art. 293 A).

Mark 1 January 2027 in the diary. Article 278-0 B is in force until that date, and Ordonnance no. 2025-1247 of 17 December 2025 repeals it from then. Article 278-0 bis carries a note to the same effect, and article 292 is in force until the same date. For a shipment planned across the turn of that year, check the articles again.