When does the state have the preemptive purchase right?
Where the owner plans to export from Georgia a value holding the status of a monument of cultural heritage for the purpose of sale, he must notify the ministry. The ministry may keep the monument in Georgia by preemptive purchase or sell it at auction; the decision is taken before the permit deadline and must be executed no later than 3 months.
Whom may the preemptive purchase not affect?
The rule does not apply to religious and spiritual values of the church and other religious organizations; to exhibits kept in state funds (their sale abroad is possible only in agreement with the ministry and on condition of acquiring equivalent replacements); and to the cases of the author or his heir during 70 years after the author's death emigrating abroad, where purchase is possible only with the owner's consent.
How is the purchase price determined?
If an official offer from a buyer exists, the price is the amount fixed in it. Otherwise the last sale price recorded at auctions for works of the same author (or the same epoch) of the corresponding genre and theme is taken as the basis, and where that is impossible the price is established by negotiation.
What happens to an ownerless value seized by customs?
Until the owner is established it is transferred to the ministry for keeping, which ensures protection, expertise and the dissemination of information. When the court establishes the owner, the value is returned to him; where the owner remains unknown, the ministry transfers it with the right of ownership to a state museum, library or archive fund.
How is an illegally exported value returned?
The owner applies to the competent authorities of Georgia with a request for support, and the ministry cooperates with the services of foreign states to prevent illegal export. A value is returned at the request of a foreign state which guarantees full compensation to the good-faith buyer.
