MILITARY

By Andrea Romano Bonetti

For a long time the weapons of the past have aroused interest in the field of collecting, coming to occupy a small space in the antiques market.

Many of the retailers nowadays carry out their business with a composite and differentiated offer, some of them even qualifying themselves in the sale of accurate replicas, others instead preferring objects exclusively linked to distinct historical moments, such as for example the era of French Grandeur, the Germanic militaristic period, the Italian Risorgimento, the two world wars, or the offensive and defense materials used in ancient Japan and that of the imperial period.

With modernization and commercial growth, some factors and methods that determine the valuation of objects have also changed. In fact, while the practice of attributing a value on the basis of age, rarity and state of conservation of an artefact has remained consolidated since the time of the nineteenth-century connoisseur, the parameter determined by the supply-demand relationship is today undergoing profound and continuous modification, in particular due to the action of new cultural influences and the emergence of increasingly diversified tastes.

The influx of many of these objects onto the antiques market and the growing demand from collectors have stimulated the development in the West of a manufacture of fakes, once established and lively only in the areas of the East affected by mass tourism.

In Italy the ownership, enjoyment, possession and transport of almost every type of weapon are regulated by dense and complex legislation which often disorientates those who, after a discovery in the attic, an unexpected inheritance or wishing to get closer to collecting, come into possession of these objects and want to know the laws and duties to which they must comply. Although there are many types of weapons and their field of application is varied, it is possible to consider firearms or shotguns and so-called “blank” weapons (edged, pointed, shot, etc.) as the collector’s usual interests. In the legislator’s classification, the first can be war, common, hunting or sporting and, finally, ancient. With the exception of a few exceptions, firearms intended for war and in working order are for obvious reasons prohibited to collectors and anyone who accidentally finds one is asked to report its presence to the public security authorities as soon as possible. Common firearms, whether hunting, sporting or intended for personal defense (including some compressed air), can be possessed after obtaining a specific license from the Ministry of the Interior and having reported them to the Police or Carabinieri.

Similarly, sidearms considered as one’s own, whether they are antique or not, are subject to the obligation to report and possess a license.

All those who intend to collect more than eight ancient, artistic or rare weapons are obliged to possess a specific license for this type, while those who find themselves in the position of possessing a smaller number are only required to report the objects to the local public security office or to the police headquarters where they reside.

Furthermore, those who wish to transport individual pieces or entire collections within the national territory are required to notify the same authorities.