The issue of cultural objects descriptions unification in the licensing and registration documents of Ukraine and the EU as a method of smuggling prevention

Abstract

This paper was presented at the 10th annual WCO PICARD conference (in the frameworks of the “Youth Forum”), 8-10 September 2015 in Baku, the Republic of Republic Azerbaijan.This scientific paper is dedicated to the analysis based on a comparison of the cultural objects description structure in the licensing and registration documents used in Ukraine and the European Union. The author has carried out a comparative analysis of the documents verification process, identification and registration procedures of cultural properties being transferred across the Customs border of Ukraine on permanent or temporary conditions, which are used in the international and national practice. Cases of import, export and transit of cultural properties through the customs border of Ukraine were considered in detail. The author described cases of expert evaluation, on the basis of which a decision about the possibility or impossibility of cultural property export is taken.The author highlights the lack of necessary photographs during cultural property movement across the customs border, which have undergone the state expert evaluation and are allowed to be exported from the country, as well as many museums catalogues of Ukraine do not have photos of the cultural objects belonging to museum collections.To fully analyze the chosen subject general scientific methods of investigation, namely analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization were used.In conclusion, the author states that a priority task to be solved is creating a unified database, built by the same rules of artefacts description and definition of a single procedure for the cultural property registration. The European system of cultural objects description should become an example of unique cultural property identification.