Posted on: January 29, 2024 by agata.becker
Art transactions continue to be plagued by forgeries, and trust alone among the various players is not sufficient to prevent damage to the market. Art authentication has always been a critical aspect of the art world, but it can often be unclear and confusing, as determining provenance and legitimacy are constant concerns. Recently, we at […]
Posted on: January 30, 2023 by Emily Gould
“A year of great change” was how IAL Director, Alexander Herman, described 2022 in the IAL blog’s customary review of the year. Change has certainly been no stranger to those invested in NFTs and other crypto markets over the past year or so, with prices fluctuating wildly and markets extremely volatile. The soaring prices of […]
Posted on: January 23, 2023 by Emily Gould
In an important decision handed down at the end of last year [1] the High Court upheld most of the claims brought by an eminent purchaser against a well-known antiquities dealer in relation to the (in)authenticity of the artefacts in question. It is rare that authenticity claims reach the courts, and when they have done […]
Posted on: December 13, 2022 by Michael Bowmer
The High Court has dismissed a multi-million pound negligence claim [Feilding & Anor. v. Simon C. Dickinson Limited [2022] EWHC 3091 (Ch)] brought by the Countess of Wemyss and her co-trustee against an art dealer over the sale of the painting “Le Bénédicité” by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. The painting had been acquired by the Countess’s ancestors in […]
Posted on: December 8, 2022 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes
The latest guidance on the anti-money laundering (AML) regulations as they pertain to the UK art market has finally brought about some much-needed clarification on some aspects of the regulations that had remained up until now somewhat difficult to comprehend and, more importantly, apply to day to day business. There are many aspects of the […]
Posted on: June 16, 2022 by Emily Gould
It’s probably fair to say that not all of our predictions for 2022 in our traditional inaugural blog post of the year have yet come to fruition – or indeed, will do so before the year is out. On one topic, however, we called it right: that this year would finally see the UK’s Ivory […]
Posted on: June 1, 2022 by Emily Gould
Art dealer turned con-artist Inigo Philbrick was sentenced last week by a US District Court to seven years behind bars. Described as “a serial swindler who took advantage of the lack of transparency in the art market” Philbrick defrauded numerous art traders, lenders and investors out of a reported US $86 million in a series […]
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 […]
Posted on: April 21, 2022 by Alyssa Weitkamp
On February 4, 2022, the United States Treasury Department released its Study on the Facilitation of Money Laundering and Terror Finance Through the Trade in Works of Art. In this Study, the Treasury Department goes through the basics of money laundering in the art world, the particular risks the art world presents for money laundering, […]
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 […]