mcgees.org

Apparently, according to international law, items that are the product of “genius of nationals” of countries in the world are worth more (morally) in the country where they originated.

However, export of these materials — which include some books, furniture, stamps, and coins — “increases the knowledge of the civilization of Man, enriches the cultural life of all peoples and inspires mutual respect and appreciation among nations”.

UNESCO is intimately involved in walking this tightrope, evidenced especially by their 1970 convention text.

As I read it, this law has no retroactive applicability.  So, Native American artifacts in Asian collections, Chinese artifacts in American collections, and relics from pretty-much-everywhere in British collections, are exempted, as long as the import occurred before 1970.

Why is this relevant?  It might be, if you sell online.  As far as I can tell, if you are American, dig in your backyard, and find a flint arrowhead, you are prohibited by international law to sell it on eBay to an overseas buyer.  You may, however, be able to sell it to someone in Alaska.  I don’t really know.

What I do know is that eBay links to that page, with very little clarification of the laws.  Check out that eBay page.  It basically reads as CYA.

For more information — fascinating information — see the list at the United States Postal Service that deals with import and export restrictions for each country.  It’s really, really, really interesting, and you should really check it out.  We can even get a game going, finding the most interesting prohibitions.

Most places ban obvious things: money, radioactive materials, infectious materials, body parts, but many ban weird stuff.

For instance, I can ship to Libya, but my shipment cannot include tea, salt, or tobacco.  For Kiribati, you cannot send things colored with dyes made from coal tar.  For Nigeria, it’s “hardware of all kinds” — whatever that means (nuts and bolts are banned?)  For the UK, the list includes CB radios and horror comics.  Turkey?  Silver coins are banned, but gold coins are allowed.

This is why I have a list on every one of my eBay auctions that tells foreign shoppers to check their import restrictions.  I am certain that many citizens of those nations are unaware of what is banned.  And I’ve certainly sold tea, dyed items, hardware, and silver on eBay.