The law on the museum fund is changing: all artifacts will be taken under protection

It will be much more difficult to sell them to collectors.

The Ministry of Culture intends to make museum collections completely inviolable. Works of art and antiques will be protected from the claims of both private collectors and bailiffs. The ministry is preparing amendments to the law “On Museum Fund”.

Now, not all exhibits included in the museum’s collection have the same degree of protection. The most inviolable are those masterpieces that are included in the main museum fund. However, it covers only a part of the valuable items that are kept in Russian museums. And, besides the main fund, the museum collection may include many others: scientific auxiliary, fund of raw materials, experimental, fund of mass archaeological objects. Such collections include various photocopies, casts, dummies, models, reconstructions, maps, diagrams, diagrams, plans and other items developed or acquired in the process of completing, studying and exhibiting museum collections. It can also be art objects with an original artistic concept, raw paleontological, geological and mineralogical samples, fragments of materials obtained during archaeological excavations, as well as other items that play a significant role in the research, educational and educational activities of the museum. Despite such solid volumes, everything that is not included in the main fund of the museum is very weakly protected by law. For example, the repository management can easily sell such exhibits to private collectors. Coordination with the owner of the artifact is not required. In addition, if the museum suddenly becomes a debtor by a court decision, the values ​​from non-core funds can go under the hammer at the behest of the bailiffs. To prevent the collections from being torn apart, the Ministry of Culture decided to endow all collections with special immunity. Everything that is stored in museums will be recognized as especially valuable movable property. This means that not a single exhibit can be sold or sent under arrest without a complex and lengthy procedure.