Sending Your Art Outside the UK
Introduction
This is as brief ArtMakers introduction to sending your art work abroad, including the EU. For more detailed information please register to see ArtMakers information pages.
Before we start VERY IMPORTANT – If your art is available for sale to anybody living anywhere in the world, you MUST state that the prices of art on your website (or third party site) are subject to the addition of any relevant duty and taxes on exporting permanently outside your country and importing to another.
When you sell your art to people outside the UK inevitably you encounter the UK Customs system, and the paperwork which comes with it.
There is a step-by-step guide exporting your work on the government website – https://www.gov.uk/export-goods
In addition, there is the government department which is there to help you with exporting your art – Department for International Trade.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-trade
These will help you find your way through the labyrinth of paperwork, which will be changing regularly as new trade agreements are signed, and regulations are updated. Therefore, always check the current links via the government links – see Jargon Busters – available by registering with ArtMakers – for the most useful.
More than a few artists, art societies and art competitions have experienced packages of art getting stuck in Customs and artwork that did NOT appear in exhibitions because the artist had failed to pay adequate attention to the processes and paperwork required for import and export.
The latest change to the international system is electronic customs forms – but
not everywhere has them yet.
Similarly if you want your art back after sending it to another country, you need to send it with the correct documentation for re-import.
For more information on how to send your art abroad, and be able to easily get it back again, please REGISTER with ArtMakers
