International exchange of cultural property within the EU territory in the years 2008-2015, from the legal, economic and cultural security perspective
The objective of the article is to establish the grounds for trading in cultural property within the territory of the EU single internal market and to investigate the trading dynamics in importing and exporting such property in the years 2008-2015. The analysis is based on the EU legal acts, statistical data published by Eurostat and a critical review of the literature. The thesis has been formulated that trading in cultural property repre-sents an important element of taking care of the protection of cultural security and potential and demonstrates endeavours for the cultural expansion of the respective EU member states, whose share in the structure of import and export of cultural property on the European Union market is far from being even. The share of a given state in the international exchange of cultural property presents an important aspect of creating not only economic, but also cultural security. In the years 2008-2015, a few European states were able to gain dominance in trading in cultural property in the European Union. Potentially, it poses a threat of cultural uniformity and standardisation, being the phenomenon which adversely affects the protection of unique systems of cultural security in Europe.