Lithuania

 

More detailed report: National Policy Report

National coordinator: Justina BERTULYTE

 CULTURAL HERITAGE POLICY

According to the Article 42 of The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, the State shall support culture and science, and shall take care of the protection of Lithuanian historical, artistic, and other cultural monuments, as well as other culturally valuable objects.

The mission of the State in the area of immovable cultural heritage is to preserve cultural heritage of Lithuania and pass it on to future generations as a guarantee of survival of the national identity, an integral part of landscape and a means of formation of Lithuania's image by providing conditions for the society to get to know and use it.

The national policy of the protection of immovable cultural heritage is formulated by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (The Parliament of Lithuania), the Government and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania having regard to the assessments, analyses and proposals of heritage protection experience and tendencies as submitted by the State Commission for Cultural Heritage.

There are five immovable cultural properties that are inscribed on the UNESCO World heritage list:

  • Vilnius Historic Centre (1994)
  • Curonian Spit (2000)
  • Kernavė Archeoligical Site (Cultural Reserve of Kernavė) (2004)
  • Struvė Geodetic Arc (2005)
  • Modernist Kaunas: Architecture of Optimism, 1919-1939 (2023)

 

 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

The Minister of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania organises the state administration of the protection of immovable cultural heritage, movable cultural properties and is in charge thereof. The Minister of Culture shall approve programmes for the heritage protection of immovable cultural heritage (accounting, heritage management, control, protection and management of protected areas, etc.) financed from the state budget, organise the implementation of heritage management programmes, declare immovable cultural property state-protected, approve the regulations of the Commission for Certification of Professionals of Immovable Cultural Heritage Protection (Researchers, Designers, Heritage Protection Experts) and the composition thereof, the regulations of the Commission of Experts on the Protection of Immovable Cultural Heritage and the composition thereof, submit objects and sites of cultural heritage for inclusion in lists of objects or sites of cultural heritage of international significance, unless specified otherwise by international treaties, perform other functions established by laws and other legal acts.

Municipalities perform certain functions assigned thereto by the Law on local self-Government and national acts of law.

The Department of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter – the Department) performs and is in charge of the implementation of specific functions of the state administration of immovable cultural heritage and movable cultural properties. The Department shall:

- provide methodological guidance for the protection of immovable cultural heritage;

- draft the legal acts regulating the protection of immovable cultural heritage;

- use state budget funds intended for the activities related to the protection of immovable cultural heritage (excluding heritage management programmes);

- draft programmes for the heritage protection of immovable cultural heritage and organise their implementation (excluding heritage management programmes). The Department may delegate the implementation of these programmes or parts thereof to other budgetary bodies, where it exercises the rights and duties of the owner thereof;

- organise and coordinate the drawing up of inventories, making known and monitoring of immovable cultural heritage;

- initiate and organise the declaration of objects of cultural heritage state-protected and submit proposals on the initiation of the declaration of objects of cultural heritage municipality-protected to heritage protection divisions of a municipality; 

- conclude with managers agreements on the protection of objects of cultural heritage;

- prepare and issue protection regulations for objects of cultural heritage of national and regional significance;

- provide the protection requirements based on this Law to natural and legal persons;

- examine complaints and applications of managers;

- process data of the Register of Cultural Property wherein immovable cultural property and data thereon shall be registered; collect, handle and store the documents related to this Register pursuant to statutory requirements;

- submit to the data processor of the Real Property Register for registration the immovable items which are objects of cultural heritage, constituent parts or territories thereof, the legal facts related to the protection of immovable cultural heritage;

- submit to the data processor of the Real Property Cadastre for entering or amending data on registration of objects of cultural heritage as objects of rights in rem and on restrictions on the use of real property;

- present, within one month from the submission, conclusions whether the design proposals prepared by the managers seeking to manage objects of cultural heritage meet heritage protection requirements;

- organise the preparation of territorial planning documents implementing the provisions of this Law;

- verify the implementation of this Law and other legal acts regulating the protection of immovable cultural heritage, control compliance with these legal acts;

- control the maintenance and upkeep of cultural heritage, stop actions of natural and legal persons at immovable cultural property, within the territories and protection zones thereof, if any violations of heritage protection requirements are detected;

- determine the manner of the recreation of damaged immovable cultural property and the amount of losses sustained;

- perform, within its remit, the functions of an entity of the environmental impact assessment of economic activities under the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment of the Proposed Economic Activity;

- have the right to obtain from state and municipal institutions, managers and other natural and legal persons information on objects of cultural heritage, survey, record and research immovable cultural property and immovable items which may possess valuable properties;

- draw up records of administrative offences in the cases and in accordance with the procedure laid down by law and examine the cases of administrative offences falling within its remit;

- refer to the court seeking to defend the public interest in the area of the protection of immovable cultural heritage, bring actions, applications, appeals before the court in accordance with the procedure laid down by law, submit to the institution exercising state supervision of territorial planning data on the natural persons holding a certificate of competency of a manager of special territorial planning of immovable cultural heritage protection and suspected of infringing this Law and the legal acts implementing it when preparing territorial planning documents or managing the preparation thereof;

- cooperate with relevant institutions of foreign states and international institutions;

- perform other functions specified by this Law and other legal acts and carry out orders of the Minister of Culture.

The Department is accountable to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.

The Cultural Infrastructure Center was established in 2020 April 1 in accordance with the 2019 November 20 resolution No. 1152 “On the Reorganization of the State Enterprise Lietuvos Paminklai” of The Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Cultural Infrastructure Center is accountable to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. The main objectives of the institution are to implement heritage management programs and programs for the infrastructure modernization of institutions under the management of the Minister of Culture.

The National Commission for Cultural Heritage is an expert group of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania , the President of the Republic of Lithuania and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and advises on issues relating to state cultural heritage protection policy, its implementation, assessment and improvement. The Commission is accountable to the Seimas.

 

 LEGAL FRAMEWORK

https://e-seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAD/30b3a4e0e38011ea869e86e74cfea363?jfwid=32wf8muu

  • Law on Protection of Movable Cultural Property

https://e-seimas.lrs.lt/portal/legalAct/lt/TAD/df4bc290e4f711e99f05bdf72918ad4e?jfwid=nz8qn7bo5

  • Law on Protected Areas

https://www.e-tar.lt/portal/lt/legalAct/TAR.FF1083B528B7/asr

  • Law on Territorial Planning

https://www.e-tar.lt/portal/lt/legalAct/TAR.26B563184529/asr

  • Resolution No. 1424 “On the approval of the Regulation for the export of movable cultural property and antiques from the Republic of Lithuania and the List of movable cultural property and antiques the export whereof from the Republic of Lithuania requires a permit issued by the Department of Cultural Heritage Protection under the Ministry of Culture”

https://www.e-tar.lt/portal/en/legalAct/TAR.8A06AF0E42F1/asr

  • Resolution No. 433 of 8 April 2003 of  the Government of the Republic of Lithuania “On the approval of obligation of the Government’s of the Republic of Lithuania for procedure of movable cultural properties temporary importation to territory of republic of Lithuania from foreign countries”

https://www.e-tar.lt/portal/en/legalAct/TAR.A1A0F56EEF61/asr

  • Resolution No. 1572 of 9 December 2003 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania “On the approval of the procedure to issue the licenses for the antiques trade”

https://www.e-tar.lt/portal/en/legalAct/1bd0389020ad11e5b336e9064144f02a/asr

  • Resolution No. 1480 of 27 November 2003 of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania “On the approval of the regulation of antiques trade”

https://www.e-tar.lt/portal/en/legalAct/TAR.E46086F54314/asr

 

 

 RATIFIED INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS

Council of Europe

  • European Cultural Convention, 1954
  • European Convention on the protection of the archaeological heritage, 1992
  • Convention for the protection of the architectural heritage of Europe, 1985
  • European Landscape Convention, 2000

UNESCO

  • UNIDROIT Convention on stolen or illegally exported cultural objects, 1995