2011-882. Extension of Import Restrictions Imposed on Archaeological Material Originating in Italy and Representing the Pre-Classical, Classical, and Imperial Roman Periods

AGENCY:

Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security; Department of the Treasury.

ACTION:

Final rule.

SUMMARY:

This document amends Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations to reflect the extension of import restrictions imposed on certain archaeological material originating in Italy and representing the pre-Classical, Classical, and Imperial Roman periods of its cultural heritage, ranging in date from approximately the 9th century B.C. through approximately the 4th century A.D. The restrictions, which were originally imposed by Treasury Decision (T.D.) 01-06 and extended by CBP Decision (Dec.) 06-01, are due to expire on January 19, 2011. The Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States Department of State, has determined that factors continue to warrant the imposition of import restrictions. Accordingly, these import restrictions will remain in effect for an additional 5 years, and the CBP regulations are being amended to reflect this extension until January 19, 2016. These restrictions are being extended pursuant to determinations of the United States Department of State made under the terms of the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act that implemented the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. This document also contains the Designated List of archaeological material of Italy that describes the articles to which the restrictions apply. Note that the Designated List has been amended to include “Coins of Italian Types” under the category entitled “Metal.”

DATES:

Effective Date: January 19, 2011.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For legal aspects, Charles Steuart, Chief, Intellectual Property Rights and Restricted Merchandise Branch, Regulations and Rulings, Office of International Trade, [phone]; for operational aspects, Michael Craig, Chief, Interagency Requirements Branch, Trade Policy and Programs, Office of International Trade, [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

Pursuant to the provisions of the 1970 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention, codified into U.S. law as the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (Pub. L. 97-446, 19 U.S.C. 2601 et seq.), the United States entered into a bilateral agreement with Italy on January 19, 2001, concerning the imposition of import restrictions on archeological material originating in Italy and representing the pre-Classical, Classical, and Imperial Roman periods. On January 23, 2001, the former United States Customs Service (now U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)) published T.D. 01-06 in the Federal Register (66 FR 7399), which amended 19 CFR 12.104g(a) to indicate the imposition of these restrictions and included a list designating the types of archaeological material covered by the restrictions.

Import restrictions listed in 19 CFR 12.104g(a) are “effective for no more than five years beginning on the date on which the agreement enters into force with respect to the United States. This period can be extended for additional periods not to exceed five years if it is determined that the factors which justified the initial agreement still pertain and no cause for suspension of the agreement exists” (19 CFR 12.104g(a)). On January 19, 2006, CBP published CBP Dec. 06-01 in the Federal Register (71 FR 3000) which amended 19 CFR 12.104g(a) to reflect the extension for an additional period of 5 years.

By diplomatic note dated December 18, 2009, the Government of Italy requested an extension of the Agreement. On October 28, 2010, after the Department of State proposed to extend the Agreement and reviewed the findings and recommendations of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, the Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States Department of State, determined that the cultural heritage of Italy continues to be in jeopardy from pillage of archaeological material representing the pre-Classical, Classical, and Imperial Roman periods and made the necessary determinations to extend the import restrictions for an additional five years. Diplomatic notes have been exchanged on January 11, 2011, reflecting the extension of those restrictions for an additional five-year period. In addition to all the previously protected cultural material, import restrictions are also being imposed on a new subcategory of objects (coins). Accordingly, CBP is amending 19 CFR 12.104g(a) to reflect this extension of the import restrictions on the currently protected cultural property and the new subcategory of cultural property.

The Designated List of articles that are protected pursuant to the bilateral agreement, as extended, has been revised and set forth below. We note that, pursuant to 19 U.S.C. 2604, the category entitled “Metal” has been amended to include the subcategory “Coins of Italian Types.” This amendment comes in response to a Diplomatic Note from the Government of Italy requesting the Designated List be amended. Coins constitute an inseparable part of the archaeological record of Italy, and, like other archaeological objects, they are vulnerable to pillage and illicit export.

Designated List: Archaeological Material From Italy Representing Pre-Classical, Classical, and Imperial Roman Periods Ranging In Date Approximately From the 9th Century B.C. to the 4th Century A.D.

I. Stone

A. Sculpture

1. Architectural Elements—In marble, limestone, steatite, basalt, tufa and other types of stone. Types include abacus, acroterion, antefix, architrave, bacino, base, capital, caryatid, coffer, clipeus, column, crowning, fountain, frieze, pediment, drip molding, pilaster, mask, corbel, metope, mosaic and inlay, pluteus, pulvinar, puteal, jamb, tile, telamon, tympanum, trabeation, transenna, basin, wellhead. Approximate date: 7th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

2. Architectural and Non-architectural Relief Sculpture—In marble and other stone. Types include carved slabs with figural, vegetative, floral, or decorative motifs, sometimes inscribed, and carved relief vases. Used for architectural decoration, funerary, votive, or commemorative monuments. Approximate date: 2nd century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

3. Monuments—In marble, limestone, and other types of stone. Types include altar and shrine, cippus, funerary stele, and milestones with figural reliefs or decorative moldings. Some have dedicatory inscriptions. Approximate date: 7th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

4. Sepulchers—In marble, peperino, alabaster, limestone, and tufa. Types of burial containers including urns, caskets, and sarcophagi. Some have figural scenes carved in relief or decorative moldings. Approximate date: 7th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

5. Large Statuary—Primarily in marble, including fragments of statues. Subject matter includes human and animal figures and groups of figures in the round. Common types are large-scale, free-standing statuary from approximately 1 m to 2.5 m in height and life-size busts (head and shoulders of an individual). Approximate date: 6th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

II. Metal

A. Sculpture

1. Large Statuary—Large-scale statues or fragments of statues in bronze or other metals including animal figures, human and divine figures, and life-size metal busts or portrait heads. Approximate date: 6th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

2. Small Statuary—Iron Age Sardinian (Nuragic) and Etruscan figurines in bronze and other metals. Approximate date: 8th to 3rd century B.C.

B. Vessels—Open and closed vessels in bronze, gold, or silver, often with incised, embossed, and molded decoration in the shape of human or animal figures. Shapes include bowls, buckets, craters, pitchers, cups, and lamps, etc. Approximate date: 8th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

C. Personal Ornaments—Etruscan and Italic rings, necklaces, earrings, crowns, bracelets, buckles, belts, pins, chains of gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Approximate date: 8th to 3rd century B.C.

D. Weapons and Armor—Body armor, including helmets, cuirasses, shin guards, and shields, and horse armor often decorated with elaborate engraved, embossed, or perforated designs. Both launching weapons (spears and javelins) and weapons for hand to hand combat (swords, daggers, etc.). Approximate date: 8th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

E. Inscribed or Decorated Sheet Metal—Engraved inscriptions often found in funerary contexts and thin metal sheets with engraved or impressed designs often used as attachments to furniture. Approximate date: 7th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

F. Coins of Italian Types—A type catalogue of listed currency and coins can be found in N.K. Rutter et al. (eds.), Historia Numorum: Italy (London, 2001). Others appear in G.F. Hill Coins of Ancient Sicily (Westminster, 1903).

1. Lumps of bronze (Aes Rude)—Irregular lumps of bronze used as an early medium of exchange in Italy from the 9th century B.C.

2. Bronze bars (Ramo Secco and Aes Signatum)—Cast bronze bars (whole or cut) used as a media of exchange in central Italy and Etruria from the 5th century B.C.

3. Cast coins (Aes Grave)—Cast bronze coins of Rome, Etruscan, and Italian cities from the 4th century B.C.

4. Struck coins—Struck coins of the Roman Republic and Etruscan cities produced in gold, silver, and bronze from the 3rd century B.C. to c. 211 B.C., including the “Romano-Campanian” coinage.

5. Struck colonial coinage—Struck bronze coins of Roman republican and early imperial colonies and municipia in Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia from the 3rd century B.C. to c. A.D. 37.

6. Coins of the Greek cities—Coins of the Greek cities in the southern Italian peninsula and in Sicily (Magna Graecia), cast or struck in gold, silver, and bronze, from the late 6th century B.C. to c. 200 B.C.

III. Ceramic

A. Sculpture

1. Architectural Elements—Baked clay (terracotta) elements used to decorate buildings. These are most often found in Etruria, Latium, Sicily, and Magna Graecia. Elements include acroteria, antefixes, relief plaques, metopes, and revetments. Approximate date: 7th to 1st century B.C.

2. Monuments—Altars and urns decorated with relief scenes. Approximate date: 5th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

3. Large Statuary—Large-scale human and animal figures, life-size portrait heads, and life-size votive objects, including fragments of statues. These are often found in temples and sanctuaries in Magna Graecia, Etruria, and Latium. Approximate date: 7th to 1st century B.C.

4. Objects with Relief Decoration—Plaques, tables, and other terracotta objects (masks) with relief decoration. Approximate date: 6th to 4th century B.C.

B. Vessels

1. Local Vessels

a. Etruscan—Decorated ceramic vessels produced by Etruscan culture, including Villanovan; Orientalizing pottery with imitations of Near Eastern designs painted on local hand-made vessels; archaic Etruscan painted pottery with polychrome decoration; funerary and cinerary vessels; Italo-Geometric pottery where production from local Etruscan workshops imitated Greek Geometric; bucchero made with a characteristic soft black paste and polished surface whose highly decorative shapes often imitate metal vessels; local imitations of black and red figure Attic; Etruscan imitations of Corinthian pottery; pottery with black glaze and orange stripes that imitates Ionic pottery; amphora in the Pontic style with painted figural decoration made by a single workshop of immigrant Ionic potters in Vulci, Etruria; Caeretan hydria attributed to a workshop of Greek immigrants working near Caere, Etruria. Approximate date: 9th to 3rd century B.C.

b. South Italian and Italic—Decorated vessels locally produced, including hand-made Daunian pottery from northern Apulia; Italiote red figure pottery of Attic derivation produced in Apulian, Lucania, Campania, and Paestum; wheel-made pottery with elaborate applied relief and painted decoration made in Centuripe, Catania; pottery with plastic and polychrome (multicolor) decoration produced in Sicily and Magna Graecia; gilded pottery with a characteristic ochre yellow color imitating artifacts in bronze, mainly found in tombs in Apulia; Faliscan pottery in imitation of Attic red figure, often in oversize vessels; Gnathian pottery, named after Egnatia in Apulia and decorated in white and yellow with touches of red over a black background; overpainted pottery with a shiny black glaze; pottery overpainted with white, yellow, or red designs in imitation of Attic red figure; Messapian pottery, locally produced in Apulia and decorated with monochrome (one color) or bichrome painting (two color). Approximate date: 8th to 3rd century B.C.

2. Imported Vessels

a. Attic Black Figure, Red Figure and White Ground Pottery—These are made in a specific set of shapes (amphorae, craters, hydriae, oinochoi, kylikes) decorated with black painted figures on a clear clay ground (Black Figure), decorative elements in reserve with background fired black (Red Figure), and multi-colored figures painted on a white ground (White Ground). Attic pottery was widely exported, particularly to southern Italy, where it is commonly found in burials. Approximate date: 6th to 4th century B.C.

b. Corinthian Pottery—Painted pottery made in Corinth in a specific range of shapes for perfume and unguents and for drinking or pouring liquids. The very characteristic painted and incised designs depict figural scenes, rows of animals, and floral decoration. Corinthian pottery was exported throughout the Mediterranean, but particularly to Etruria and southern Italy. Approximate date: 8th to 6th century B.C.

IV. Glass

A. Architectural Elements—Mosaics and glass windows. Approximate date: 4th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

B. Sculpture

1. Intarsia—Cut or carved glass decorative elements to inset in furniture. Approximate date: 2nd century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

2. Small Statuary—Glass animal statuettes as amulets or knickknacks. Approximate date: 2nd century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

V. Painting

A. Wall Painting

1. Domestic and Public Wall Painting—Beginning in about 200 B.C. wall painting in private and public buildings is characterized by imitation of stucco or marble design. Later developments include “architectural” style, “ornamental” style, and “fantastic” style. Triumphal painting in temples and public buildings illustrate military campaigns and conquered lands. Approximate date: 3rd century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

2. Tomb Paintings—Early tomb paintings are primarily found in Etruria and Southern Italy. These paintings were directly influenced by Greek painters, but illustrate local style. Scenes often illustrate funerary celebrations, rites, symbols, and daily events. Roman funerary painting is also inspired by Greek painting, but also develops from domestic and public types of wall painting. Approximate date: 6th century B.C. to 4th century A.D.

The Designated List and accompanying image database may also be found at the following Internet Web site address: http://exchanges.state.gov/​heritage/​culprop/​itimage.html. The restrictions on the importation of the above-listed archaeological materials originating in Italy are to continue in effect until January 19, 2016. Importation of such material continues to be restricted unless the conditions set forth in 19 U.S.C. 2606 and 19 CFR 12.104c are met.

Inapplicability of Notice and Delayed Effective Date

This amendment involves a foreign affairs function of the United States and is, therefore, being made without notice or public procedure (5 U.S.C. 553(a)(1)). In addition, CBP has determined that such notice or public procedure would be impracticable and contrary to the public interest because the action being taken is essential to avoid interruption of the application of the existing import restrictions (5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B)). For the same reasons, a delayed effective date is not required under 5 U.S.C. 553(d)(3).

Regulatory Flexibility Act

Because no notice of proposed rulemaking is required, the provisions of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) do not apply.

Executive Order 12866

Because this rule involves a foreign affairs function of the United States, it is not subject to Executive Order 12866.

Signing Authority

This regulation is being issued in accordance with 19 CFR 0.1(a)(1).

List of Subjects in 19 CFR Part 12

• Cultural property
• Customs duties and inspection
• Imports
• Prohibited merchandise

Amendment to CBP Regulations

For the reasons set forth above, part 12 of Title 19 of the Code of Federal Regulations (19 CFR part 12), is amended as set forth below:

PART 12—SPECIAL CLASSES OF MERCHANDISE

1. The general authority citation for part 12 and the specific authority citation for § 12.104g continue to read as follows:

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301; 19 U.S.C. 66, 1202 (General Note 3(i), Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS)), 1624;

* * * * *

Sections 12.104 through 12.104i also issued under 19 U.S.C. 2612;

* * * * *

2. In § 12.104g, paragraph (a), the table is amended in the entry for Italy by removing the reference to “CBP Dec. 06—01” and adding in its place “CBP Dec. 11—03”.

David V. Aguilar,

Acting Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Approved: January 12, 2011.

Timothy E. Skud,

Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.