Legal Acts in English

This Law shall regulate the system of protection and preservation of cultural heritage.

The aim of this Law shall be to establish a legally regulated and organized system for protection and preservation of cultural heritage through the discovery, collection, research, documentation, study, evaluation, protection, preservation, presentation, interpretation, use and management of cultural heritage.

The terms used in this Law shall have the following meaning:

1) Cultural heritage is a set of resources, tangible and intangible, inherited from the past, recognized as a reflection and expression of continuously evolving values, beliefs, knowledge and traditions, created by the interaction of man and space over time. Cultural heritage may be both tangible cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage;

2) Tangible cultural heritage is part of the cultural heritage forming immovable cultural heritage and movable cultural heritage;

3) Immovable cultural heritage is part of the tangible cultural heritage comprised of immovable property, their groups, parts or remains, and wherefor it is presumed that they may have or by virtue of the evaluation procedure, in accordance with the law, has been determined that they have cultural, social, historical, archaeological, ethnological, anthropological, technical and industrial, artistic, artistic and craft, architectural, construction and building and constructive, spatial (urban or rural) and scientific value and value of the original, unique item or antiquity;

4) Movable cultural heritage is part of the tangible cultural heritage comprised of movable items, their groups, parts or remains that are presumed to have or by virtue of the evaluation procedure, in accordance with the law, has been determined that they have cultural, social, historical, archaeological, ethnological, anthropological, technical and industrial value, artistic, artistic and craft, scientific and value of the original, unique item or antiquity. Movable cultural heritage, according to its types, shall consist of museum material, archival material, old and rare library material and film and other audiovisual material;

5) Cultural goods are objects and creations of material and spiritual culture of general interest, valued and established in accordance with the law, and forming an integral part of the tangible cultural heritage;

6) Immovable cultural goods are cultural landscapes, spatial cultural and historical units, cultural monuments, archaeological sites and landmarks;

7) Movable cultural goods are museum material, archival material, film and other audiovisual material, old and rare library material;

8) Intangible cultural heritage shall be understood to mean practices, displays, expressions, knowledge, skills, as well as instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated with them, which communities, groups and in certain cases individuals, recognize as part of their cultural heritage. It is transmitted from generation to generation, communities and groups recreate it depending on the environment, their interaction with nature and history, giving them a sense of identity and continuity. In this way, they promote respect for cultural diversity and human creativity;

9) Cultural heritage at risk is cultural heritage, regardless of type as well as whether it is identified for cultural good, if it is at risk of destruction, disappearance, serious breach of integrity or damage;

10) Goods enjoying prior protection are objects and creations presumed to possess cultural values in accordance with this Law;

11) Goods under prior protection are recorded goods enjoying prior protection;

12) Prior protection is part of the process of evaluating tangible cultural heritage preceding establishment for cultural goods;

13) A cultural object is a movable cultural good or good under prior protection which, before or after unlawful removal from the territory of a Member State of the European Union or another State, is categorized or defined as "a national treasure having artistic, cultural, historical or archaeological value", on the basis of national legislation or administrative procedure, in accordance with Article 36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union;

14) Institutions for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage are institutions carrying out the activity of protection and preservation of cultural heritage in accordance with the provisions of this Law and the provisions of special laws governing individual areas of protection of cultural heritage;

15) The institution of culture is a legal entity established to carry out cultural activity in accordance with the provisions of the law governing the field of culture;

16) Central protection institutions in the Republic of Serbia are the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, the National Museum of Serbia, the State Archives of Serbia, the National Library of Serbia and the Yugoslav Cinematheque;

17) The parent institutions for protection are public protection institutions carrying out parent tasks and whose competence, rights and obligations are governed by special laws governing individual activities of cultural heritage protection;

18) Territorially competent institutions for protection are public institutions for protection performing cultural heritage protection activities in a particular territory in accordance with special laws;

19) Evaluation is an expert and scientific assessment of the properties, peculiarities and significance of a good, so as to determine cultural value and status of a cultural good;

20) Cultural goods by category are cultural good, cultural good of great importance and cultural good of exceptional importance;

21) Cultural goods registers are public registers which, according to the types of cultural goods, are run by institutions for protection in accordance with this Law and special laws governing individual areas of protection of cultural goods;

22) The Central Register is a public register of cultural goods for the territory of the Republic of Serbia run by central institutions for protection according to the types of cultural goods, unless otherwise stipulated by law;

23) The National Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage is a public register run by the Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage;

24) An unlawfully removed cultural object from the territory of a Member State of the European Union is a cultural object or cultural good:

(1) removed from the territory of a Member State of the European Union in violation of its rules on the protection of national goods or in violation of the Regulation (EC) No 116/2009 on the export of cultural goods, or

(2) that has not been refunded after the expiry of the statutory period for temporary removal or any breach of any other condition governing such temporary removal;

25) A Member State of the European Union that has requested the return of the cultural object is the Member State from whose territory the cultural object has been unlawfully removed;

26) A Member State of the European Union requesting the return of the cultural object is the Member State in whose territory is located the cultural object unlawfully removed from the territory of another Member State of the European Union;

27) The return of a cultural object is the physical return of a cultural object unlawfully removed from the territory of the Republic of Serbia, i.e. from the territory of another state, and which is located in the territory of the Republic of Serbia and carried out in accordance with international treaties, international conventions and national legislation;

28) The holder of a cultural object is a legal entity or natural person directly exercising de facto authority on a cultural object, i.e. in whose possession is a cultural object, and not being its owner;

29) An independent holder of a cultural object is a person exercising de facto authority on a cultural object for their own account;

30) A non-independent holder of a cultural object is a person exercising de facto authority on a cultural object for a third party;

31) Public collections are collections defined as public in accordance with the legislation of a Member State of the European Union and that are owned by that Member State, local or regional body in that Member State or by an institution located in the territory of such Member State, provided that such an institution is owned by the Member State of the European Union or a local or regional body or is financed to a considerable extent.