You may own a work lawfully and still not be allowed to move it.

Owning an object is one question. Whether it may cross a border, and whether it may be sold at all, are two more. The answer depends on the species the material came from, whatever the object is. A clock, a cabinet, a guitar and a fan raise the same problem.

Published by ArtisDomus, written by Polina Surina.

There are three layers of rules. The Convention sorts species into appendices and says what paperwork each needs. In the European Union, two regulations turn these into annexes, permits and certificates, and add a ban on commercial use that the Convention does not have. In the United Kingdom, a separate Act bans dealing in ivory outright, with five exemptions.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was opened for signature in Washington on 3 March 1973. Article II sets up three appendices. Appendix I lists all species threatened with extinction that are or may be affected by trade. Appendix II lists species that may not be threatened now but may become so unless trade is strictly regulated. Appendix III lists species that a Party regulates within its jurisdiction and for which it needs other Parties’ cooperation. The Parties may allow trade in specimens of species in Appendices I, II and III only in line with the Convention (Article II(4)).

To export an Appendix I specimen, an export permit must first be granted and presented (Article III(2)). It may be granted only when four conditions are met. The fourth is that the exporting State’s Management Authority is satisfied that an import permit has been granted for the specimen. To import an Appendix I specimen, you need an import permit and either an export permit or a re-export certificate, all granted and presented in advance (Article III(3)). Among other conditions, the import permit may be granted only if the importing State’s Management Authority is satisfied that the specimen will not be used for primarily commercial purposes.

Appendix II needs one document fewer. Export needs an export permit (Article IV(2)). Import needs only the prior presentation of an export permit or a re-export certificate (Article IV(4)). An Appendix III specimen needs an export permit when it is exported from a State that listed it (Article V(2)).

Article VII holds the exemptions owners ask about. Under paragraph 2, Articles III, IV and V do not apply to a specimen acquired before the Convention applied to it, but only where the Management Authority of the State of export or re-export is satisfied of that fact and issues a certificate saying so. This is the pre-Convention certificate: the owner must obtain it and cannot simply claim the status. Paragraph 3 lifts Articles III, IV and V for personal or household effects, with exceptions that depend on where the owner acquired the specimen and where it is being imported. Under paragraph 7, a Management Authority may waive the requirements for specimens in a travelling exhibition. The conditions include that the specimens fall within paragraph 2 or paragraph 5.

The practical point of Article III is the one owners miss. An Appendix I object needs paperwork from both countries. The destination must issue its permit first, and it may not issue one for a primarily commercial purpose.

In the EU, Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 of 9 December 1996 turns the appendices into four annexes. Annex A holds the Appendix I species for which Member States have not entered a reservation (Article 3(1)(a)). Annex B holds the Appendix II species not listed in Annex A (Article 3(2)(a)). Annex C holds Appendix III species, and Annex D holds species imported in numbers that warrant monitoring.

The materials an owner is most likely to have sit in the Annexes as follows. The Roman numeral in brackets is the Convention appendix.

Annotation #15 is why a rosewood cabinet and a rosewood guitar are different problems. It covers all parts and derivatives, with five exceptions. The first is leaves, flowers, pollen, fruits and seeds. The second is finished products with up to 10 kg of wood of the listed species per shipment. The third is finished musical instruments, and finished musical instrument parts and accessories. The fourth is parts and derivatives of Dalbergia cochinchinensis, which fall under annotation #4. The fifth is parts and derivatives of Dalbergia spp. originating in and exported from Mexico, which fall under annotation #6.

The ten kilograms are counted narrowly. The limit refers to the weight of wood of each annotated species in the items in the shipment. It is assessed only against the weight of the wood of each annotated species in each item, not the total weight of the shipment. Weights of different annotated species are not added together.

To bring an Annex A specimen into the EU, you must first present an import permit at the border customs office. It is issued by a management authority of the Member State of destination (Article 4(1), Regulation (EC) No 338/97). That authority must be satisfied that the specimen will not be used for primarily commercial purposes (Article 4(1)(d)). Annex B specimens also need an import permit (Article 4(2)).

To export or re-export an Annex A specimen, you must first present an export permit or re-export certificate at the customs office. It is issued by a management authority of the Member State where the specimen is located (Article 5(1)). The same applies to Annexes B and C (Article 5(4)).

Article 8(1) catches owners who expected only a border question. For Annex A specimens, it bans purchase, offer to purchase and acquisition for commercial purposes. It also bans display to the public for commercial purposes, use for commercial gain, and sale, keeping for sale, offering for sale or transporting for sale.

A management authority can exempt a specimen from these bans by issuing a certificate, case by case, in eight listed situations (Article 8(3)). It issues such certificates on application (Article 10). The same bans apply to Annex B specimens, with one exception (Article 8(5)). They do not apply if it is proved, to the competent authority’s satisfaction, that the specimens were acquired under the wildlife conservation law in force. If the specimens came from outside the EU, it must also be proved that they were brought in under that law.

Article 9(1) adds a step that surprises lenders. Moving a live Annex A specimen within the EU, away from the location given in the import permit or certificate, needs prior authorisation. This concerns living material, under the same regulation and the same authority.

Article 2(w) of Regulation (EC) No 338/97 defines “worked specimens that were acquired more than 50 years previously”. These are specimens significantly altered from their natural raw state for jewellery, adornment, art, utility or musical instruments. The alteration must date from more than 50 years before the Regulation came into force. The management authority of the Member State concerned must be satisfied that they were acquired in such conditions. They count as worked only if they clearly fall into one of those categories and need no further carving, crafting or manufacture to serve their purpose.

The Regulation came into force on the day it was published in the Official Journal (Article 22). That was Official Journal L 61 of 3 March 1997. The Regulation itself gives no calendar date for the fifty years, so you work it out by subtraction. The Great Britain text gives one.

If the definition is met, three things follow. Under Article 4(5)(b), the import conditions in Article 4(1)(a) and (d) and Article 4(2)(a), (b) and (c) do not apply. Under Article 5(6)(i), the export conditions in Article 5(2)(a) and Article 5(2)(c)(ii) do not apply. And under Article 8(3)(b), a worked specimen acquired more than fifty years previously is a ground for the certificate that lifts the ban on commercial use.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 decides whether you need to apply for a certificate at all. No case-by-case certificate is needed where the specimen has a specimen-specific certificate under Article 48, or falls under a general exemption in Article 62 (Article 61). Article 62(3) gives a general exemption for worked specimens acquired more than 50 years previously, as defined in Article 2(w) of Regulation (EC) No 338/97. Then it adds four words: “except specimens containing elephant ivory”.

Those four words were added by Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/2280 of 16 December 2021. The same regulation added Article 48(1)(e): a certificate stating that the specimens are worked specimens containing elephant ivory that were acquired more than 50 years previously. So inside the EU, owners of mixed objects face a split. An antique tortoiseshell box needs no certificate to be sold. An antique ivory box of the same date needs a specimen-specific certificate from the management authority.

Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 338/97 lifts Articles 4 and 5 for dead specimens, parts and derivatives of Annex A to D species that are personal or household effects. This exemption (in legal terms, a derogation) works only under rules set by the Commission: Articles 57 and 58 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 865/2006. They are narrower than the phrase suggests.

On entry, the exemption does not cover specimens that are used for commercial gain, sold, displayed for commercial purposes, or kept, offered or transported for sale (Article 57(1)). It applies only in three cases. The specimens are in the personal luggage of travellers coming from a third country. They are in the personal property of an individual moving their normal residence to the EU. Or they are hunting trophies taken by a traveller and imported later. There is no exemption at all for Annex A specimens brought in for the first time by someone who normally lives in, or is moving to, the EU (Article 57(2)).

Article 58(1) repeats the commercial exclusion for export. Article 58(2) goes further: for export, the exemption does not apply to specimens of species in Annex A or Annex B at all. So a rosewood table and an ivory-inlaid desk cannot leave the EU as personal effects.

A person who normally lives in the EU may re-export personal or household effects without a re-export certificate (Article 58(3)). They must show a customs-endorsed copy of a permit used before, or a copy of the re-export document referred to in Article 57(3). Proof that the specimens were acquired in the EU also works. Since a 2015 amendment, this does not apply to rhinoceros horn or elephant ivory, which need a re-export certificate. Commercial activities are banned for Annex A specimens that entered the EU as personal and household effects (Article 58a(2)).

Dealing in ivory is banned (section 1(1), Ivory Act 2018, 2018 c. 30). Dealing means buying, selling or hiring ivory, or offering or arranging to buy, sell or hire it. It also means keeping it for sale or hire, and exporting it from or importing it into the United Kingdom for sale or hire (section 1(2)). Ivory includes an item made of ivory and an item that has ivory in it (section 1(5)).

Section 1(4) works in one direction only. Buying ivory outside the United Kingdom, or hiring it there as the borrower, falls outside the ban. Selling it outside the United Kingdom, or hiring it out there as the lender, is caught. A United Kingdom owner who consigns an ivory object to a sale abroad is dealing.

There are five exemptions (section 1(6)).

Section 38(3) fixes the dates. Pre-1918 means made before 1 January 1918, pre-1947 before 3 March 1947, and pre-1975 before 1 January 1975. Ivory added on or after the relevant date is allowed only if it was taken from the animal before 1 January 1975 and was added to restore the item (section 38(2)).

To register under section 10, you give the owner’s name and address, a description of the item and its distinguishing features, and a photograph showing them. You also give a declaration that the item meets the relevant exemption conditions, explaining how; details of any dealing expected; and any prescribed fee. Registration is confirmed in writing with a unique reference (section 10(4)). Executors should read section 11(1) first: registration stops being valid when ownership of the item changes, and the new owner must apply again.

Ivory means ivory from the tusk or tooth of five animals (section 37(1)). They are the elephant, the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), the killer whale (Orcinus orca), the narwhal (Monodon monoceros) and the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). The last four were added with effect from 28 January 2025. In legal proceedings, material proved to be ivory from an animal is presumed to be from an animal listed in section 37(1). That holds unless it is proved to be from none of them (section 37(7)). So the person dealing carries the burden of identifying it.

It is an offence to breach the ban, to cause a breach or to facilitate one (section 12(1)). The person must know or suspect, or ought to know or suspect, that the item is ivory or has ivory in it (section 12(2)). It is a defence to have taken all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence (section 12(3)). On conviction on indictment, the penalty is up to five years in prison, a fine, or both (section 12(4)(d)).

In Great Britain, Regulation (EC) No 338/97 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 still apply, in their own versions on legislation.gov.uk. These have differed from the EU versions since the end of the transition period.

Two differences matter to an owner. First, Article 2(w) in the Great Britain text of Regulation (EC) No 338/97 says “before 3rd March 1947”, where the EU text uses the rolling formula. The change took effect on 31 December 2020, under the Environment and Wildlife (Miscellaneous Amendments etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, S.I. 2020/1395. Otherwise the definition is word for word the same. Second, Article 62(3) in the Great Britain text of Commission Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 has no ivory exception, because the EU added it in December 2021. In Great Britain, the Ivory Act 2018 restricts ivory. The two overlap unevenly: the Act covers five species of ivory, and the Regulation covers every Annex A specimen.

Article 10 of the Great Britain text was replaced with effect from 23 June 2026 by the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Amendment and Revocation) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/627, regulation 2(8). Once it receives an application with all the required supporting documents, and provided the conditions are met, the management authority may now issue a permit or certificate for the purposes of Articles 4, 5, 8 and 9.

The management authority is the Secretary of State (regulation 12(1), Control of Trade in Endangered Species Regulations 2018, S.I. 2018/703). Government guidance says that the Animal and Plant Health Agency issues CITES permits to move species to and from Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The same guidance says you must also contact the management authority of the other country, and that a permit from the Agency does not guarantee that the other country will issue one. It calls the certificate for commercial use an Article 10 certificate.

Breaching Article 8 carries up to six months in prison or a fine on summary conviction. On conviction on indictment, it carries up to five years in prison, a fine, or both (paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to those Regulations). It is a defence to prove you had no reason, at the time of the alleged offence, to believe the specimen was of an Annex A or Annex B species (regulation 4(1)).

The species the material came from. The date the object was worked, and the date it was acquired. Where the object is now, and where it is going. All the rules above turn on these three. A valuation, a photograph and a provenance file usually record none of them.

Among the objects ArtisDomus is asked about, the ones that cause trouble are almost never the obvious ivory carving. They are the inlay on a cabinet, the tortoiseshell veneer on a tea caddy, the fittings on a fan, the tuning pegs on an instrument and the bow. Each makes the whole object a specimen under Article 2(t) of Regulation (EC) No 338/97, which covers any part or derivative, whether or not it is inside other goods.

You cannot place a material in an annex from a description. A specialist must examine the object to identify shell, bone and dense tropical hardwood. Under section 37(7) of the Ivory Act 2018, the person dealing bears the cost of skipping that step.

A summary of the law for general information. It is not legal or tax advice.