Category Archives: Art Market

U.S. Court of Appeals Finds The Met is Rightful Owner of Picasso’s The Actor

Posted on: July 12, 2019 by Stephanie Drawdy

The great-grand niece of a Jewish couple from Cologne, the Leffmanns, has again received an adverse ruling in a New York federal case in which she seeks possession of a painting sold by the Leffmanns after Nazi-rule necessitated their departure from Germany. In its June 26, 2019 decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld […]

Changes to the Artist’s Resale Right regime in Italy

Posted on: July 10, 2019 by Eleonora Chielli

Eleonora Chielli is a partner at Chielli Law Firm, member of the Bar Association in Venice and lecturer in Art Law at Istituto Europeo di Design. The Guidelines issued on 1 February 2019 clarified the way in which SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori), the Italian equivalent to DACS, who is entitled to collect […]

A happy ending for Stik and the people of Gdansk

Posted on: July 5, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

We have a noteworthy development to report that will be seen by many as a welcome conclusion to the long-standing dispute over some removed Stik murals. It has taken the street artist Stik five years to reach a resolution, working alongside Miss Take, of the Polish collective ‘Graffiti Ladies’. Some of you will recall listening […]

An afternoon of ‘Art on the Move’ at Maurice Turnor Gardner

Posted on: June 25, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

Last Wednesday, the Institute of Art & Law together with Maurice Turnor Gardner hosted a number of talks and panels on the topic of ‘art on the move’ and the legal issues involved from title and export controls to bailment and the impact of Brexit. Speaking to a packed room, MTG’s and IAL’s teams were […]

New Money Laundering Directive – plans for the UK

Posted on: June 17, 2019 by Emily Gould

Readers may recall our post a few months ago focused on the problem of money laundering in the art trade, and in particular, the adoption by the European Parliament of the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5MLD), to be implemented by Member States by 10th January 2020. In anticipation of the implementation in the UK, the Government, […]

Court of Appeal confirms $10m commission on Gauguin sale

Posted on: May 17, 2019 by Michael Bowmer

On 14 May 2019 the Court of Appeal of England and Wales (Lewison LJ, Lindblom LJ, Rose LJ) unanimously dismissed the appeal by Ruedi Staechelin and his fellow trustees against the decision of Morgan J dated 16 January 2018. By his judgment Morgan J had held that a commission of US$10 million was payable to […]

Is it ‘buyer beware’ or must dealers play fair?

Posted on: March 1, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

As the art world gears up for another round of TEFAF to take place next month in Maastricht, we are faced with the unfortunate outcome involving the sale of two Old Master paintings during last year’s fair. The paintings, sold by the renowned London-based gallery Richard Green, were a river landscape by Jan Brueghel the […]

Study Forum in London and Upcoming Talks

Posted on: February 26, 2019 by Kiri Cragin Folwell

Thanks to everyone who joined us at our sold out study forum on Saturday. Held at Notre Dame University in London, we were fortunate to hear a variety of presentations from specialists in art and cultural heritage law. The first talk of the day was on auction houses and third party guarantees. Christine Burron, the […]

Tightening the screws against money laundering – will the art world be hung out to dry?

Posted on: February 4, 2019 by Emily Gould

It is rare that the somewhat dry and complex topic of anti-money laundering regulation hits the headlines in the art world. Introduce an A-list celebrity and a couple of paintings by names such as Basquiat and Picasso, however, and the stakes are raised. In June 2017 the online forum artnet news reported on an investigation […]

Art, AI and copyright

Posted on: November 9, 2018 by Alexander Herman

A big splash was made when a lot sold at Christie’s New York last month for $432,500. That sort of amount is usually small change for the major international auction house, but not when it comes to a particular sort of artwork: one made by artificial intelligence (or AI). In fact, this was reported to […]