The latest issue of our quarterly journal, Art Antiquity and Law, has now gone to press and hard copies should be in the post soon to subscribers. Digital subscribers will be able to access it via Hein even earlier.

This issue contains several articles relating to the collections of art and artefacts contained in the Vatican collections in Rome – these articles originated as papers presented at an online conference held in January 2023, hosted by the Institute of Art and Law in partnership with Trinity College, the Faculty of Law and the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto, the Art Provenance Research Centre (FPK) at the University of Bonn and the Minerva Center for Human Rights at Tel Aviv University.

In a paper entitled ‘Vatican Rules: Cultural Collections, Inalienability and the Power of the Pope’ IAL Director Alexander Herman and Art, Business and Law alumna Chiara Gallo discuss the legal structure of the Vatican collections, showing the distinction between the civil law rules that govern the collections and the ecclesiastical law operating within the Catholic Church. The investigation leads towards a better understanding of how the Vatican can restitute material to countries and communities of origin, despite the prevailing inalienability principle. Then in ‘Reparation and Return: Residential Schools, the Vatican Archives and Canada’s Band Reparations Settlement’, Professor Mayo Moran from the University of Toronto looks at the relationship between the return of Indigenous belongings from the Vatican collections and the historical role of the Catholic Church in running Canada’s controversial Residential Schools system, suggesting ways in which restitution might be a step towards reconciliation. And in a contribution from Professor Tullio Scovazzi, we get an insight into the international rules around heritage protection and the status of the Ethiopian manuscripts that have been in the Vatican since being donated by the notorious colonial official Enrico Cerulli.

The issue also includes important contributions on other topics. Jennifer Orange from Toronto Metropolitan University examines the impact of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples since its passage in 2007, specifically in Canada. In 2021, the Canadian Parliament passed an Act to implement the Declaration into domestic law, which could eventually lead to amendments in relation to repatriation (Articles 11 and 12 of the Declaration deal squarely with this topic). But, as Orange shows us, there is still work to be done before the provisions can have force of law in Canada.

Andrea Martín Alacid, an art and cultural property lawyer at Uría Menéndez in Spain, describes the awakening of Spain’s interest in its own heritage using the example of the frescoes from the Hermitage of San Baudelio de Berlanga, starting with the period between 1900 and 1933, looking at the process of sale, removal and export of the frescoes, as well as the ramifications of these actions on Spanish cultural heritage.

Last, but not least, Adam Jomeen, the solicitor behind Art Law Studio Ltd, examines two cases involving assertions of joint authorship made by collaborators – one involving work by the German artist Martin Kippenberger and the other involving Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. In each case the claim to be recognised as a joint author was made many years after the disputed work had been completed, and, in the German case, many years after the death of the original artist. The conclusion to be drawn from these cases, it is suggested, is that collaborators should enter into clear, written contracts dealing with copyright and how the works are to be produced at the very start of their collaboration.

We hope that readers enjoy these contributions on a number of fascinating and relevant topics.  You can either subscribe to the journal or become a member of IAL, which includes access to the journal.