Talking to booksellers and auctioneers in London, especially those who deal in manuscripts, not just printed books, it seems clear that a combination of Brexit and the noticeable recent tightening of Export License approvals are slowly strangling the UK rare book trade.
For example: to buy a manuscript leaf for €100 in France, import it into the UK & then resell it to a buyer outside the UK, while *fully* complying with all applicable customs & licensing regulations, will de facto likely cost the UK seller over £1000 & 10+ hours of admin time.
In a typical scenario, the leaf would require 4 admin. processes:
1. a French export license or passport (not needed at all for items under EUR 3000 within the EU). Applying for this requires specialist knowledge and the submission of original documents and photos (not online).
1. a French export license or passport (not needed at all for items under EUR 3000 within the EU). Applying for this requires specialist knowledge and the submission of original documents and photos (not online).
2. This would be followed by formal export to the UK, a more expensive process than just informally shipping a courier parcel, and one requiring the employment of a clearing agent on the UK side.
3. Then an application for a UK export license, which again requires specialist knowledge, and needs to be done entirely online, requiring you interalia to have some quite high-end Adobe software. While in the past the Export Licensing process was mainly focussed on items.... 1/2
that might meet the Waverley criteria, under the new regime they look at everything, even for the most trivial objects, and often require original import documentation (not just affidavits) dating back decades. 2/2
4. Finally, formal export from the UK, again requiring the employment of customs agents, not just an ordinary courier.
If you're one of the minority of UK rare booksellers with the in-house expertise to handle both UK & French license applications yourself, roughly £1000 + 10 hours admin time is a fair estimate. If you need to employ consultants to do this for you, it will cost considerably more.
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