German Antiquiities Trade "at Risk"?

Catherine Hickley, 'Storm clouds gather over German art market' Art Newspaper 14 April 2016

One sector of the art market that may leave the country for ever because of the law is the antiquities business. The bill requires an export licence from the country of origin for any archaeological treasures imported into Germany or sold on the domestic market. Van Ham is considering closing its Asian art department, Eisenbeis says. At Nagel Auktionen in Stuttgart, Michael Trautmann, an expert in Chinese art, says that the summer auction of Asian art has been brought forward to May from June, before the law is enacted.

Yeah... get all those papierlos antiquities onto the market while you can. Discerning buyers however may wish to wait until the market is cleansed of such junk and buy responsibly afterwards. Meanwhile all those dealers that filled their stockrooms no-questions-asked with unpapered artefacts will have reason to rue their rashness. Still, they can stick them in a container, hope they are not detected at the border and send them to the UK or New York to sell - for now.