Executive Order No. 12047

Executive Order 12047, March 27, 1978, 43 F.R. 13359, as amended by Executive Order 12388, October 14, 1982, 47 F.R. 46245.

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Act of October 19, 1965, entitled “An Act to render immune from seizure under judicial process certain objects of cultural significance imported into the United States for temporary display or exhibition, and for other purposes” (79 Stat. 985, 22 U.S.C. 2459), and as President of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. The Director of the United States Information Agency^[1] is designated and empowered to perform the functions conferred upon the President by the above-mentioned Act and shall be deemed to be authorized, without the approval, ratification, or other action of the President, (1) to determine that any work of art or other object to be imported into the United States within the meaning of the Act is of cultural significance, (2) to determine that the temporary exhibition or display of any such work of art or other object in the United States is in the national interest, and (3) to cause public notices of the determinations referred to above to be published in the Federal Register.

Section 2. The Director of the United States Information Agency, in carrying out this Order, shall consult with the Secretary of State with respect to the determination of national interest, and may consult with the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the Director of the National Gallery of Art, and with such other officers and agencies of the Government as may be appropriate, with respect to the determination of cultural significance.

Section 3. The Director of the United States Information Agency is authorized to delegate within the Agency the functions conferred upon him by this Order.

Section 4. Executive Order No. 11312 of October 14, 1966 is revoked.^[2]

Section 5. Any order, regulation, determination or other action which was in effect pursuant to the provisions of Executive Order No. 11312 shall remain in effect until changed pursuant to the authority provided in this Order.

Section 6. This Order shall be effective on April 1, 1978.

[1] The references to the United States Information Agency were inserted in lieu of references to the International Communication Agency by sec. 1 of Executive Order 12388.

[2] Executive Order 11312, effective October 14, 1966, had delegated the authorities under this executive order to the Secretary of State. With the establishment of the International Communication Agency (since redesignated as the United States Information Agency) on April 1, 1978, these functions were redelegated to the Director of the new Agency.

The above is from Legislation on Foreign Relations Through 1996, volume II, p. 1147, printed for the use of the Committees on International Relations and Foreign Relations of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, respectively, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1997.

Note: Pursuant to the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-277, 112 Stat. 2681 et seq., generally references in Executive Order 12047, as amended, to the Director of the United States Information Agency shall be deemed to refer to the Secretary of State, and references to the United States Information Agency shall be deemed to refer to the Department of State. Further, pursuant to Delegation of Authority Nos. 234 of October 1, 1999, and 236 of October 19, 1999 (as amended), these authorities have been delegated to the Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs.