A Black Heaven / Get it home / Duty

Do I pay duty on art I bought abroad?

Usually not, if it is an original work of art — but the exemption is narrower than collectors think, and it is drawn by tariff classification, not by whether something feels like art.

The statutes and notices cited on this page were last read on 3 September 2026. We re-check past 21 days.

The rule

Original paintings, drawings, pastels, original engravings, prints and lithographs, and original sculpture are classified in Chapter 97 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule and enter the United States free of duty. Free of duty is not the same as free of formality: the work still has to be declared, and the classification still has to be right.

What falls outside it

Craft, textiles and decorative objects are not in Chapter 97 whatever they cost and whoever made them. They pay the duty rate of what they are made of. This is the single most common surprise on this site: a handwoven cloth and an oil painting bought in the same afternoon from the same gallery are treated as two different classes of goods at the border.

Anything carved, framed or backed in wood also raises a species question under the Lacey Act declaration, which reached its remaining plant-product codes on 1 December 2024. Ask the gallery for the timber species before you ship, not after.

Buying the object is not buying the rights

Under 17 U.S.C. § 202 the transfer of a physical work conveys no copyright in it. You own the canvas; the artist keeps the right to reproduce it. That matters the moment you want to photograph the piece for anything other than your own records.

By origin

The 2026 tariffs, and the one that reaches this site

Three things happened in 2026 and only the last one still matters. The Supreme Court held on 20 February that the emergency-powers statute does not authorise tariffs at all, and the IEEPA tariffs fell. A Section 122 balance-of-payments surcharge replaced them from 24 February, but Section 122 runs for 150 days and no more; it expired on 24 July 2026 and was not extended.

What took its place on 24 July is a Section 301 action against 60 economies for failing to enforce a ban on imports made with forced labour, at 10% or 12.5% depending on the economy. Nigeria and Brazil are both in the 12.5% group. Ghana is on neither list.

Why your painting still escapes it — and your textile does not

You will read that Chapter 97 is exempt from the new duty. It is not, because there is no Chapter 97 carve-out in this action at all. What exempts an original work is a different provision: subheading 9903.05.92, covering informational materials, whose text names artworks outright. That wording comes from 50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(3), which applies "whether commercial or otherwise" — so buying the piece rather than being given it does not take it outside the exemption.

The distinction is not academic, because it decides the objects on either side of it. A painting, an original print or a sculpture from Lagos or Salvador escapes the 12.5%. A handwoven cloth, a carved decorative object or a piece of craft is neither Chapter 97 nor an informational material, so it pays the 12.5% on top of the ordinary duty rate of its material. That is the same line as the Chapter 97 line, drawn twice, and it now costs more to be on the wrong side of it.

Classification is still yours to establish at entry. The exemption is a subheading you claim, not a status the object carries.

Sources for this section

Read on 15 September 2026, from the action and the guidance rather than from commentary — every summary we checked described the artwork exemption wrongly.