Authorisation for works and works on movable cultural property

For the execution of works and works of any kind on cultural property - including movable property, decorated surfaces of architectural heritage and the installation of systems to protect the safety of movable and immovable cultural property - it is necessary to obtain authorisation from the Superintendent.

The obligation concerns privately owned assets declared to be of cultural interest pursuant to Articles 10 and 13 of Legislative Decree 42/2004 (Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code) or as a result of notifications under previous laws (L. 20 June 1909, no. 364, L. 11 June 1922, no. 778, L. 1 June 1939, no. 1089), as well as publicly owned assets verified as being of cultural interest pursuant to Articles 10 and 12 of the Code, and also assets, pending the verification procedure, over 70 years old owned by public and non-profit legal persons.

Authorisation is also required for absolute emergency interventions to prevent damage to the protected property, following the communication referred to in Article 27 of the Code.

Reference is made to the provisions of Article 29 of the Code regarding the competence of restorers for restoration work on valuable surfaces of architectural heritage.

Failure to comply with the obligation to obtain the authorisation envisaged in Article 21 paragraph 1 letter a) and paragraph 4 of Legislative Decree 42/2004 entails the application of criminal sanctions pursuant to Article 169 of Legislative Decree 42/2004 and, in the event of damage, also the application of administrative sanctions pursuant to Article 160 of the same Code.

Natural persons, private or public legal persons

To apply for authorisation, the form for work on movable property and decorated surfaces or for alarm systems (Form 4279) must be completed.

The completed form must be sent to the Soprintendenza Technical Service for Cultural Assets at
pec: serv.soprintendenza@pec.provincia.tn.it

The application may also be hand-delivered to the head office of the UMSt Soprintendenza per i beni e le attività culturali (Office of the Superintendency of Cultural Assets and Activities), to the various public information and assistance desks decentralised throughout the territory, or forwarded by fax or by post.

For anything not directly provided for, reference is made to the provisions of Provincial Council Resolution no. 2051 of 14 December 2020 (Directives concerning telematic communications between the provincial administration and its public and private interlocutors).

In the course of the preliminary investigation, further opinions may be acquired, including, for example, the opinion of the competent body of the Archdiocese of Trento for ecclesiastical property pursuant to the Agreement of 18 May 2007, the opinion on archaeological property, the opinion of the Provincial Committee for Cultural Property in the cases provided for.

For restoration work on movable property and decorated surfaces of architectural heritage:

• technical intervention report in duplicate countersigned by the applicant;
• graphic project drawings in duplicate countersigned by the applicant;
• current photographic documentation explaining the degradation;
• specialist documentation (monitoring, chemical analysis, etc.);
• identification sheet for each asset, if due (art. 12, Legislative Decree 42/2004);
• opinion of the Archdiocese of Trento - Administration and General Affairs Area - Authorisation Service (in the case of requests concerning cultural assets of religious interest owned by ecclesiastical bodies subject to Diocesan Authority);
• information notice pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 of EU Regulation no. 679/2016;
• photocopy of an identity document of the applicant (if the application is signed with a handwritten signature and not in the presence of the employee in charge).

For work on alarm systems only (without building work on architectural heritage)

• plan of the installation in duplicate countersigned by the applicant (map extract of the building, scaled diagrams, explanatory technical report)
• photographic documentation of the interior of the building and the works to be protected in their location;
• list and location of works of art to be protected;
• opinion of the Archdiocese of Trento - Administration and General Affairs Area - Authorisation Service (in the case of requests concerning cultural assets of religious interest owned by ecclesiastical bodies subject to Diocesan Authority);
• information notice pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 of EU Regulation no. 679/2016;
• photocopy of an identity document of the applicant (if the application is signed with a handwritten signature and not in the presence of the employee in charge).

For works of any kind (restoration, cataloguing, census, ordering, inventorying) of movable property (archives and libraries)

• technical intervention report in duplicate countersigned by the applicant;
• current photographic documentation explaining degradation (for restoration work);
• opinion of the Archdiocese of Trento - Administration and General Affairs Area - Authorisation Service (in the case of requests concerning cultural assets of religious interest owned by ecclesiastical bodies subject to diocesan authority)
• identification sheet for each asset, if due (art. 12, Legislative Decree 42/2004)
• information notice pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 of EU Regulation no. 679 of 2016;
• photocopy of an identity document of the applicant (if the application is signed with a handwritten signature and not in the presence of the employee in charge).

For restoration works on movable cultural assets only or on the decorated surfaces of architectural assets only, i.e. in the absence of interventions on the architectural assets themselves, the submission, as an attachment to the application, of the restoration project or, for the scope of public contracts governed by Legislative Decree 50/2016 (Public Contracts Code), of the technical sheet pursuant to art. 147 paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree. 50/2016, in both cases signed by an operator enrolled in the Ministry of Culture's list of restorers of cultural heritage (including restorers with a diploma from courses qualifying them to practice the profession pursuant to Art. 29 of Legislative Decree 42/2004, or in possession of a qualification obtained on the basis of the transitional provisions of Art. 182 of Legislative Decree 42/2004, or in possession of a foreign qualification recognised in Italy following a specific decree of the Ministry of Culture's Directorate-General for Education, Research and Cultural Institutes). The restorer must hold a qualification in the sector(s) of professional competence relevant to the nature of the assets to be restored.

The project documents pertaining to the restoration of movable assets or only of the decorated surfaces of architectural assets will detail the data relative to the assets and the intervention, including the executive techniques and constituent materials both original and from any previous interventions, the evaluation of the deterioration conditions of the assets and the interactions between them and their context, as well as the different phases and techniques of the intervention.

In the case of overall interventions on architectural assets that also include decorated surfaces, please refer to the compilation of the "Authorisation for works and works of any kind on immovable cultural assets" form.

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