Trading any sort of privately-owned movable cultural property will only be permitted with a license from Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.
Movable cultural properties are defined as physical items that are part of the country’s cultural heritage including works of art, fabrics and apparels, manuscripts or any historically valuable object.
According to Mohammadreza Zahedi, head of movable cultural properties office at ICHHTO, heritage items are categorized into two groups: those discovered in public or private lands and those handed down in families through generations.
“Keeping and trading the first group objects is absolutely prohibited but items of the second group can legally change hands based under certain regulations,” the official was quoted as saying by CHTN.
Legal Platform
He explained that trading the second group properties through online auctions, shopping websites and other methods in cyberspace is legally allowed but only inside the country and contingent upon receiving a permit from ICHHTO “for they are considered national heritage anyway.”
“Offenders who violate the regulations and those who move the heritage items across the borders will be subject to prosecution,” Zahedi said.
The policy has opened a space for private collectors, the official noted. “Over the last five years, more than 300 collectors have been identified, 105 of whom have received licenses.”
According to Zahedi, those items discovered during archaeological excavations and field investigations in heritage sites go under strict protection of heritage authorities and are mostly transferred to museums.
“Keeping and trading such items by people, even if they are discovered during legal excavations, is prohibited.”
The protection unit at ICHHTO and the Iranian Cyber Police will conduct full time monitoring to detect any violation of the rules.
Reportedly, during the last Iranian year (ended March 20), more than 200 illegal trading websites which sold historical objects were identified and 116 were blocked.
