ITALY, 2017
Article from "LA STAMPA" of Turin, 18 march
A court in Turin has issued a ruling that is worrying stamp collectors, auction houses and dealers. According to the court, all documents from 1840 to present that have been sent to a public body are state-owned, and they should be stored in public archives. If they were “rejected”, they should be destroyed. The revolutionary principle could bring down the philatelic trade, whose total revenue is 120 million euro per year. According to the court, which condemned a stamp trader from the town of Rivoli, near Turin, if documents are in the hands of a private individual this is a consequence of unlawful acts.
The problems stems from a legislative decree of 2004, which has established the principle that documents addressed to public bodies are “inalienable cultural assets”. In 2013 the Ministry for cultural heritage clarified that simple envelopes with stamps and postmarks can not be considered worthy of protection, and that only some documents, which need to be preserved, are always state-owned. In all other cases, there must be proof that they were stolen from archives.
The Turin court overturned the reasoning, stating that all documents have belonged to a public body, so if they are on the private market they need a certification that there was no stealing. If the private individual is not able to produce the supporting certificate, “it must be concluded that the document was unlawfully removed”, says the ruling. Concerning envelopes, “a specific and targeted analysis of each individual document” is required, the court said.
The entire stock in storage belonging to the trader from Rivoli was seized. Officers now will have to identify documents one by one and to determine in which archives they should be placed.