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Robbie you asked in commenting on a previous posting 'How does a
government decide which goods cannot be exported and the social and
legal basis for preserving historical items?'.  With the current
uncertainly surrounding White Bros' Mammoth Gavioli, I'm pleased to say
that the UK operates one of the strictest export license regimes in the
world.  Indeed, a number of important vintage fairground items have
already been successfully prevented from exportation in the past.  To
quote from the UK Government's own guidelines: 'The purpose of the
export control is to give an opportunity for the retention in this
country of cultural goods considered to be of outstanding national
importance.  The system is designed to strike a balance, as fairly as
possible, between the various interests concerned in any application for
an export license - for instance, the protection of the national
heritage; the rights of the owner selling the goods; the exporter or
overseas purchaser' etc, etc.  I hope this answers your question.

Even if Andrew Oram is legally in a position to offer White Bros'
Mammoth Gavioli for sale - and this point is by no means clear at the
moment - I am certain that any attempt to export such an item of
outstanding importance to British fairground/cinematograph history would
meet with a lot of resistance.  As Mark Yaffe is discovering in France,
you cannot expect to remove an item of great cultural significance from
a foreign country without attracting government scrutiny and public
opposition.  Perhaps now is the moment for the French to reclaim the
Statue of Liberty?

Vive l'orgue de la foire du Trone!
Long live White's Mammoth Gavioli (in the UK)!

PS I'm sorry my first posting is so heavyweight.  I promise to lighten
up!