Clarification regarding designation and eligibility to apply for certification of movable cultural property

The Heritage Policy and Programs Branch (Designation component) of the Department of Canadian Heritage would like to remind all Category A organizations that they are designated for a specific location for which their facilities were reviewed as well as for specific classes of cultural property (previously called "object groups") for which they are able to demonstrate to have the necessary measures and resources in place to ensure the long-term preservation of the objects. The object classes are as follows:

Class

1. Natural History (including fossils, minerals and other natural history objects) and Archeology
2. Objects of Ethnographic Material Culture
3. Military Objects
4. Objects of Applied and Decorative Arts
5. Objects of Fine Art
6. Scientific or Technological Objects
7. Archival Material (fonds and collections including textual records, graphic records, cartographic records and iconography)
8. Musical Instruments
9. Audiovisual Collections (film, video, new media, including digital)

An organization that wishes to submit an application for certification to the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board (CCPERB) for an object belonging to a cultural property class for which it is not designated must beforehand submit an application for designation to the Heritage Policy and Programs Branch of the Department of Canadian Heritage. This application may be for a Category A designation if the organization expects to make several acquisitions for objects belonging to the cultural property class in question or Category B if the acquisition is more exceptional in nature.

Furthermore, any organization that wishes to acquire an object that will be displayed outdoors will, from June 06, 2019 and until further notice, be required to make an application for a Category B designation before submitting an application for certification to the CCPERB. Objects displayed outside present specific risks that need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. New guidelines on objects displayed outdoors will be made available soon.

We wish to remind you that for all applications for certification of cultural property for which an organization is not already designated the gift must remain proposed until the organization has received its designation. Any transfer of legal title of the property before an organization is designated will null and void the possibility of obtaining an income tax credit.

If you have any questions or if you are considering acquiring an object for the purposes of certification that will be displayed outdoors, please call 819-997-7761 or write to bcm-mcp@pch.gc.ca.