Importing paintings for exhibition

[Katherine Farrell]

I agreed to participate in an exhibition starting this coming May in my native Cork. I live in the USA. My brother who lives in Cork, is a talented pastel artist and I like to paint in oils, so I was honored to be invited to do a joint exhibition in the Jennings Gallery in the Brookfield building at University College Cork. We are both alumni of the medical school. The curators asked to see our work by using a drop box and they selected landscapes. In my case I made sure the dimensions were small enough to be transportable in a suitcase.
I was worried about how to transport paintings and soon found out shipping them was too expensive. Fortunately I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland with my husband this March so I thought I would bring them then and leave them with my brother.

The Irish embassy in Washington was very helpful in putting me in touch with the proper people in customs and I learned that there is a special regulation about temporary import of artwork for exhibition and possible sale in Ireland. I was flying into Shannon and the customs authorities made sure to e mail the forms to me in advance. There is a special VAT rate which applies which is 13.5% of the price. So I needed to make my preliminary price list so they could have a basis for the calculation. They assured me it could be adjusted when I exported the unsold work if the final sales were at a different price. Also it needed to be provided in the form of a bank draft or cash. We have an account in an Irish bank so we chose to pay by bank draft. The paintings which don't sell must be exported again within 24 months at which time the VAT is refunded and adjusted for the actual sales price.

So 18 framed paintings even with small light frames are quite hard to pack so we ended up splitting them between two big suitcases and two hand luggage bags. We brought a detailed list with photos and prices as well as the dimensions and descriptions and left that with customs. That will be critical to help us prove we are exporting the same ones when returning the unsold paintings.

We made sure customs officials were aware of our flight details and were met by an official who put our bags into storage pending payment of the VAT. Then we checked into a hotel to get some sleep. When we woke the banks were open so we got our bank draft and returned to claim our cases.

So you are probably wondering why we didn't just walk through the "green" with our bags and say nothing. The problem with that would be that we could have been stopped and the fine would have been substantial. Further the export of unsold paintings could have been another problem and possible fine. By following all the regulations we can avoid all that and be sure of taking the paintings home safely later. The chances of being stopped are actually fairly high when customs see people traveling with unusual amounts of baggage. Maybe we are just law abiding by nature but I would rather comply than worry.

So they made it. The exhibition "Medical Sibling Perspectives"in Jennings Gallery will run from May 12 to August 25. I hope some of you stop by and see it.

[Tony Robinson]

Interesting points and post.