Last month, the Reviewing Committee for the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest published its 70th report, listing the applications it considered in 2024–25. The committee was created in 1952, following a report by John Anderson, 1st Viscount Waverley, on the export control of works of art from the UK.

The committee can recommend to the Secretary of State that the export of an item should be deferred in order to allow a British institution or individual to make an offer for it. The basis for such a recommendation is whether the object meets one or more of the three so-called Waverley criteria: close connection with British history and national life; outstanding aesthetic importance; or outstanding significance for the study of art, learning or history.

The committee

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