TERMS OF USE SELLERS
Criminal rules on counterfeiting or alteration of works of art.
The legislation on cultural heritage requires those who trade works of painting, sculpture, graphics or works of historical or archaeological interest to issue, upon sale, a photographic copy of the work or object with a declaration of authenticity as stated art. 2 of law n ° 1062 of 20/11/1971.
Current legislation Certificates of authenticity and provenance LAW of 20 November 1971, n. 1062. Criminal regulations on counterfeiting or alteration of works of art.
The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Italian Republic have approved: THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC PROMOTES The following law:
Article 1
The exercise of activities of sale to the public or exhibition for the purpose of trade in works of painting, sculpture, graphics, objects of antiquity or of historical or archaeological interest is subject, except as specifically provided for by this law, to the provisions of the law 11 June 1971, n. 426. All those who intend to exercise one of the activities indicated in the previous paragraph must be registered in a special section of the register established by art. 1 of the law 11 June 1971, n. 426. Enrollment is also mandatory for art studios or similar institutions when selling or exhibiting the works or objects indicated in the first paragraph there for the purpose of selling. The authorization to exercise the type of activity, for which registration in the register of traders has been obtained, is issued by the competent mayor pursuant to art. 24 of the law of 11 June 1971, n. 426; the aforementioned authorization is not subject to the constraints deriving from the development and adaptation plans, provided for in Chapter II of the aforementioned law.
Item 2
Anyone who carries out one of the activities provided for in art. 1 must make available to the purchaser the certificates of authenticity and provenance of the works and objects indicated therein, which in any case are in the business or exhibition. At the time of the sale, the owner of the company or the organizer of the exhibition is required to issue the buyer with a photographic copy of the work or object with a signed declaration of authenticity and indication of the origin, bearing his signature.
Article 3
Anyone who, in order to obtain illicit profit, counterfeits, alters or reproduces a work of painting, sculpture or graphics, or an object of antiquity or of historical or archaeological interest is punished with imprisonment from three months to four years and with fine from one hundred thousand to three million lire. The same penalty is subject to anyone who, even without having participated in counterfeiting, alteration or reproduction, puts on the market, or holds to trade it, or introduces for this purpose into the territory of the State, or in any case puts into circulation, as authentic, counterfeit or altered specimens or reproductions of works of painting, sculpture, graphics or objects of antiquity, or objects of historical or archaeological interest.
Article 4
The same penalties indicated in the previous article are subject to: 1) anyone who, knowing their falsity, authenticates works or objects, indicated in the previous articles, which are counterfeited, altered or reproduced; 2) whoever, by means of other declarations, appraisals, publications affixing stamps or labels or by any other means, accredits or contributes to accredit, knowing the falsity, as authentic works or objects, indicated in the previous articles, counterfeited, altered or reproduced.
Article 5
If the facts indicated in the two preceding articles are committed in the exercise of a commercial activity, the penalties are increased. The conviction also results in the suspension of the administrative authorization to operate, for a maximum duration of six months. The registration referred to in art. 1 is revoked if the offender has incurred the aggravated recidivism provided for by numbers 1 and 2 of the second paragraph of art. 99 of the penal code.
Article 6
The sentence for the crimes referred to in the previous articles is published in three national newspapers designated by the judge and published in three different locations. The judge in the operative part of the sentence establishes whether this must be published in full or in excerpt.
The publication is carried out ex officio at the expense of the condemned person.
Article 7
The confiscation of counterfeit, altered or reproduced copies of the works or objects indicated in the previous articles is always ordered, except in the case of things belonging to a person unrelated to the crime.
The goods confiscated pursuant to the preceding paragraph are forbidden, without time limits, to be sold in auctions of bodies of crime.
Article 8
The criminal provisions provided for in the previous articles do not apply to anyone who reproduces, holds, sells or otherwise disseminates copies of works of painting, sculpture or graphics, or copies or imitations of objects of antiquity or of historical or archaeological interest, declared expressly inauthentic, at the time of display or sale, by means of a written note on the work or object or, when this is not possible due to the nature or size of the copy or imitation, by means of a declaration issued at the time exhibition or sale. Likewise, they do not apply to artistic restorations that have not decisively reconstructed the original work. In sales at auctions of criminal offenses, the proceeding office is obliged to provide for the forms of advertising, annotations and declarations indicated in the first paragraph and relating to the non-authenticity of the confiscated works and objects.
Article 9
Art. 9. In criminal proceedings for the crimes referred to in the previous articles, until the register of technical consultants in the field of works of art is established, the judge must make use of experts indicated by the Minister for public education, who is required to hear, in relation to the nature of the work or object whose non-authenticity is assumed, the designation of the competent section of the Superior Council of Fine Arts.
In cases of modern and contemporary works of art, the judge is also required to assume as a witness the author to whom the work of art is attributed or whose signature the work itself bears.
----------------------------------------------