Singapore Office missions

The office is the first point of contact for national focal points in Asia-Pacific. It helps them transpose the OIMAP Directives 2019, prepare their contributions and complete the member area. It relays their legal questions to the Regulation and Law Directorate.

For States applying for membership, it organises preparatory missions and facilitates exchanges with neighbouring countries that are already members.

The office follows the major public sales, fairs and trade shows in the region. It meets auction houses, galleries and collectors to explain the traceability requirements and the procedures for sales approval.

It also collects the difficulties encountered by professionals and passes them to headquarters in order to improve services.

When a theft or disappearance occurs in the region, the office passes the alert to customs, free ports and the main auction houses. It ensures the link between the International Bureau for Protected Works and national services.

This local presence shortens the time needed to circulate information, a decisive factor in recovering a work before it leaves the territory.

Each year, the office organises several sessions with the OIMAP Academy: identifying forgeries, reading provenance documents, export control. Its audiences are customs officers, police officers, magistrates and officials of ministries of culture.

Training takes place in Singapore or in capitals, depending on States' requests, and can be followed partly remotely.

The team collects data on sales, prices and flows of works, which it passes to the Market and Studies Directorate. This data feeds the Organization's publications.

It also tracks developments in national legislation on export and heritage protection, which makes it possible to anticipate support needs.