REGULATIONS WITH RESPECT TO CIVIL TURNOVER IN THE ACT ON THE RESTITUTION OF POLISH HERITAGE ASSETS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO MUSEUMS’ OPERATION

Abstract

It is the legal regulations related to civil turnover specified in the Act of 25 May 2017 on the Restitution of Polish Heritage Assets (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2019, Item 1591) in the context of the activity of museums and other institutions running a museum activity that is the topic of the paper. They speak of legal activities including ownership transfer or charge on Poland’s heritage assets pertaining to public collections, or the ban on acquiring assets from a person unauthorized to dispose of them or manage them by prescription, as well as of the non-limitation of claims for their release. The Author analyses the central concept of the quoted Act: that of the national heritage assets of the Polish Republic pertaining to public collections, while discussing in detail both criteria that are related to it: subject- and ownership-related ones. He points to the fact that the definition of public collections it contains is extremely broad, covering not only public collections in the colloquial meaning of the term, but also the collections of the majority of private museums, as well as non-museum collections of private entities and persons, as long as they have applied public financing. In the further part of the paper, the civil-law regulations specified in the Act are discussed, with special emphasis on the requested form of the legal actions including the transfer of ownership or burden (in writing with a certified date) suggesting that this can apply also to deposit or lending contracts. He also discusses the praxis and judicature with respect to the in writing with a certified date pointing to the possible lack of the awareness of the contract parties that the object of the contract pertains to a public collection in compliance with the provisions of the Act, and that the special contract format should be kept. In this context the Author presents some practical solutions allowing to avoid certain negative consequences. In the conclusion it is emphasized that the regulation contains certain concepts which might inspire essential interpretative doubts having impact on the application of the discussed regulations.