Frequently asked questions on the directives

The directives are addressed to States, which must transpose them, and to market operators: auction houses, galleries, dealers, platforms, experts, auctioneers. Private individuals are not directly bound, but benefit from good-faith protection if they have shown prudence.

A private individual who sells a work through an auction house is in effect subject to its procedures, which apply the directives. A private individual who sells directly is not bound to formal diligence, but takes risks if they do not check the provenance.

For an operator, the main obligations are to verify the identity of the parties and the provenance of the work, to consult the BIOP database, to declare sales within thirty days, to keep a register of transactions and to retain supporting documents for ten years. These obligations vary according to the amount and the risk of the transaction.

An enhanced vigilance threshold of €10,000 triggers additional checks. For high-risk provenances (conflict zone, old excavation, unknown intermediary), enhanced vigilance applies whatever the price.

Three mistakes come up often. The first is to believe that consulting the BIOP database is enough: it is one check among others. The second is not to keep evidence: undocumented diligence is the same as no diligence. The third is to confuse declaration and registration: declaring a sale to the Observatory does not exempt you from registering the work in the Registry.

Correcting these mistakes is enough, in most cases, to bring a procedure into compliance. The checklists in the Due Diligence section are designed for this.