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This turns out to be especially good advice for collectors of Chinese antiquities, who are now faced with controversial new U.S. Customs and Border Protection regulations ostensibly intended to curtail the looting of Chinese cultural patrimony. Our concern here: In trying to curb the illicit trade in Chinese artifacts — clearly a laudable goal — the U.S. government has inadvertently created a minefield for legitimate collectors, dealers and scholars.

The new restrictions stem from a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the United States and China that became effective days before the end of President Bush’s term. The MOU is extremely broad, covering Chinese antiquities from the Paleolithic Period (75,000 B.C.) through the end of the Tang Dynasty (907 A.D.), together with wall art and monumental sculptures that are at least 250 years old. Such works may now be legally imported into the United States only if China issues a valid export certificate or if they left China before January 16, 2009, the effective date of the restrictions. The MOU does not apply to any antiquities that were exported from China before that date.

Clients who were worried about complying with the new regulations started calling us in mid-January. John, for instance, is a longtime collector and sometime art dealer living in New York. He faxed us a list of his recent purchases, and we responded by considering each work in turn.

The Tang horse that he bought in Paris last year, currently on loan to a European museum, could be legally imported into the United States because John had a clear paper trail showing that it had left China before January 16, 2009. Based on our discussions with U.S. Customs, we advised John that this type of paper trail should be "verifiable," which generally means having appropriate documents on letterhead with good contact information in the event of questions by U.S. Customs officials. John was relieved to hear that the import restrictions are not retroactive — a fact that many collectors fail to realize.

The stainless-steel rock by contemporary artist Zhan Wang that was sitting in a Shanghai warehouse was also unaffected by the new regulations because it was less than 250 years old. But John’s Tang funerary pot posed a trickier problem, since it was currently with a Hong Kong dealer.

"Does U.S. Customs view Hong Kong as inside or outside China?" John asked.

The answer seems to be outside, and works may be imported into the U.S. if accompanied by a declaration that they were located outside mainland China — such as in Hong Kong — before January 16, 2009. Hong Kong’s status is especially important since it is still a center of the international trade in Chinese antiquities and a place where Sotheby’s and Christie’s have regularly held large auctions of antiquities. All indications are that these auctions will continue.

We next turned to a pre-Tang jade belt buckle. It happened to be in a Beijing warehouse, so it fell squarely within the new import restrictions and could not be legally imported into the United States without a Chinese export license.

"Where do I get this license?" asked John.

The answer, according to Dong Baohua, vice director general of China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage, is one of 14 state-level agencies throughout China that were established to review applications for exports of cultural property and issue licenses. "These state agencies independently exercise their authority in reviewing and approving applications for import and export of cultural property in accordance with laws," Baohua explains. "Signs will be marked on and licenses will be issued to items of cultural property permitted for export after review and approval procedures are completed." Although this sounds reasonable in theory, in practice longtime dealers in the field are skeptical that such permits will be issued in accordance with the guidelines — if at all. Experienced buyers will continue to rely on reputable local mainland dealers to obtain the necessary export paperwork.