Author Archives: Emily Gould

About Emily Gould

Emily Gould is Assistant Director of the Institute of Art and Law. She writes, teaches and presents on a range of areas pertaining to art and cultural heritage law including copyright, heritage crime, museum ethics and contracts.

NFTs as property: courts start to rein in the NFT ‘Wild West’

Posted on: May 11, 2022 by Emily Gould

The NFT space is commonly characterised as a ‘Wild West’, where anything goes and legal controls are minimal. A recent decision of the UK High Court suggests that the law’s lasso of control is at least starting to bring some order to the purported chaos. In a case involving the alleged theft of two NFTs […]

Report on IAL seminar on heritage and sustainability, 29 March 2022

Posted on: April 4, 2022 by Emily Gould

How do we balance the need to protect our inherited past with the demands of contemporary life and the interests of future generations? Can economic imperatives align with sustainability objectives or are they destined always to conflict? These were two of the key questions addressed in the IAL’s first seminar on the theme of sustainability, […]

What’s new for the export of works of art? IAL seminar with Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP shines a light on recent developments

Posted on: February 23, 2022 by Emily Gould

The mobility of works of art, people and almost everything else has been severely restricted over the past two years by the Covid-19 pandemic. Fittingly, then, as international travel becomes possible once again, the IAL’s first in-person seminar since February 2020 was dedicated to the topic of art exports. It was a pleasure to welcome […]

Amazing discoveries in England’s smallest county

Posted on: February 10, 2022 by Emily Gould

Last September, I had the pleasure of sharing on the blog the wonderful story of the return of a long-lost treasure to the local museum of my home county of Rutland in the UK’s East Midlands. Little did I think that less than six months later, I would again be writing about England’s smallest county, […]

Can an NFT be art? And why it matters…

Posted on: January 26, 2022 by Emily Gould

Term has started again this week for students of the Art Business and Law LLM provided by IAL in conjunction with Queen Mary, University of London. This semester, students will embark on three diverse new topics: Art and Intellectual Property, covering the intangible aspects of art; Art and Money, exploring the financial parameters of the […]

News on upcoming Transatlantic Cultural Property Crime Symposium

Posted on: November 2, 2021 by Emily Gould

Readers of the blog with an interest in international art crime may be interested in attending the second ‘Transatlantic Cultural Property Crime Symposium’ to take place online next week (Monday, November 8 – Wednesday November 10). The 2021 Symposium will explore innovative approaches in both criminal law and civil law to assist in the detection, […]

Anglo-Saxon brooch returned to local museum after more than a quarter century

Posted on: September 23, 2021 by Emily Gould

All too often in the field of art law we read about looting, destruction and loss, heritage subjected to risks and threats the world over. It sometimes feels like happy endings are rarer than hens’ teeth. Even less common, perhaps, are art world stories which have a very personal resonance. However, a story which came […]

NFTs – contemplating copyright and contract conundrums (part II)

Posted on: June 2, 2021 by Emily Gould

In our post last week, we explored some of the copyright issues raised by recent stories from the world of NFTs. Today, we turn our focus to matters of contract law. How can we address the challenges posed by contractual mechanisms unfamiliar to many in the art world? And where we might look for answers […]

NFTs – contemplating copyright and contract conundrums (part I)

Posted on: May 28, 2021 by Emily Gould

It hardly seems possible that the now world-famous sale of Beeple’s ‘Everydays’ NFT at the eyewatering price of $69 million happened less than three months ago. The sale was still underway when we first offered a few thoughts on the explosion of NFTs onto the mainstream art market. Bidding was at what now feels like […]

IAL interviewed on art law podcast, Warfare of Art and Law, with Stephanie Drawdy

Posted on: May 19, 2021 by Emily Gould

We were delighted to be invited last week to contribute to the excellent podcast series of attorney and artist, Stephanie Drawdy. Stephanie, an alumna of the IAL, will be familiar to many readers of the blog as she is a regular contributor, providing insight and comment on a range of topics, as well as having […]