Under the Charities Act 2022, which is anticipated to take effect this fall, charities—including national museums—are permitted to get rid of items when doing so is morally required to do so. The National Heritage Act of 1983 has previously placed restrictions on museums.
Museums will now be able to deaccession low-value assets without requesting permission; higher-value goods will still require consent from the Charity Commission, the attorney general, or a court.
Major British museums like the Tate and the Victoria & Albert were prohibited by the National Heritage Act from deaccessioning items from the collection unless they met particular criteria, such being a duplicate or being damaged beyond repair.
Petra Warrington, an art lawyer with Charles Russell Speechlys, told Artnet News, "Given the growing moral and political pressure on museums and their trustees to "do the right thing," this legislation provides new avenues for trustees to explore, helping them to find solutions where originally the law had not provided a legal framework for restitution. It's a really good development.
The new regulation might increase the ability of museums to repatriate cultural artefacts in addition to returning stolen art and human remains.
A head of Eros from the third century that had been removed from a coffin in the nineteenth century was shipped to Turkey earlier this year.
A head of Eros from the third century that had been removed from a coffin in the 19th century and transported to the U.K. earlier this year was sent to Turkey. This "renewable cultural partnership" transfer, which is technically a long-term loan of V&A property because returning the object would have violated the National Heritage Act, is being done.
Art law expert Alexander Herman argued that the previous Charities Act 2011 had not effectively accommodated national museums in a paper outlining the act's potential effects.