National treasures These are goods belonging to public collections (e.g. museums, libraries), classified historical monuments, archives and cultural property affected by the law of 31/12/1992 pending a decision on their status. National treasures can never be exported definitively. A leave can be authorized in four cases (for a cultural event, restoration, appraisal, or deposit in a public collection).

Cultural property subject to authorization to leave: this refers to cultural property that presents an historical, artistic or archeological interest and that falls under one of 14 specific categories in reference to the customs rates nomenclature. Cultural property must have a certificate attesting that it is not in the nature of a national treasure or an authorization of temporary leave.

National treasures and cultural property require an authorization to leave the territory of the community (request from the customs services in your country) when they are exported to a non-member country of the European Union, in this case to Switzerland. First and foremost, you must determine whether your works of art fall under one of these categories.