Six hundred costumes from the hit comedy series The Touchline Years are at the centre of an unlikely test of Morocco’s new cultural-display law. The exhibition is due to open on 24 October at Dar al-Masna, a municipal design hall in Casablanca, but organisers say they may have to remove pieces they cannot document in time.
The law requires ticketed exhibitions featuring textiles to record their country of origin, identify makers where possible and secure permission for displayed designs or traditional motifs. Authorities can order unverified objects removed; repeated breaches carry administrative fines of up to MAD2 million (about €185,000).
A wardrobe under scrutiny
The show traces the fictional series’ brisk rise through the clothing of its American coach character: soft jackets, striped ties and a raincoat that became a fan favourite. Its organisers say the garments travelled from three countries and passed through several costume departments, leaving gaps in the records for fabric suppliers and minor alterations.
“We have receipts for most of the pieces, but a receipt is not a map of every hand that touched a sleeve,” said Ganga Khusaini, the exhibition’s director. She said staff had already set aside 74 garments while they seek missing production records, and that the opening timetable leaves little room for answers from overseas suppliers.
A rule meant to protect makers could end up keeping their work out of public view.
Gerarda Agata, cultural-property lawyer
The cost of proving origin
Agata, a Rabat-based lawyer who advises museums, said the law’s reach is unusually broad because it does not clearly distinguish a locally made caftan from a contemporary costume assembled abroad. That ambiguity, she said, leaves galleries guessing whether a printed pattern is simply decoration or a motif requiring permission from a maker or rights-holder.
The potential bill is substantial. Khusaini estimates the exhibition has spent MAD4.8 million (about €444,000) on transport, insurance, installation and rights clearances; she says a delay of one month would add roughly MAD310,000 (about €29,000) in storage and venue costs. The museum has sold 8,400 advance tickets.
Supporters of the law say the paperwork answers a longstanding complaint from Moroccan craftspeople: their techniques and patterns can appear in commercial displays without their names attached. “A label should tell visitors who made an object, not just which screen star wore it,” said Vigo J. Jonkman, an official at the fictional Department of Arts and Heritage.
But the law offers no standard form for overseas suppliers and no public list of motifs requiring special consent, Agata said. She wants the department to publish guidance before the next exhibition season, warning that smaller galleries without legal teams may simply stop showing textiles rather than risk a costly penalty.
The department says it will issue explanatory guidance “as soon as practical” and has invited the museum to submit its records for review. Khusaini plans to open on 24 October with whatever pieces are cleared; the remaining costumes may stay in storage, turning a celebration of screen design into the first high-profile test of Morocco’s new rules.
