Posted on: January 9, 2015 by Alexander Herman
Judgment was rendered last month by the Supreme Court of New South Wales in the case of McBride v Christie’s Australia. The case involved the auction sale of a painting by Australian modernist artist Albert Tucker in May 2000 to a barrister named Louise McBride for AUD $75,000. Later, in 2010, when McBride made arrangements to sell the […]
Posted on: October 29, 2014 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper
Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam passed away last week at the age of 98. He had served as Prime Minister between 1972 to 1975, during a turbulent period of Australia’s history. He had also spoken at an Institute of Art and Law event in 2001 on the topic of the Parthenon (or Elgin) Marbles. He was […]
Posted on: August 1, 2014 by Alexander Herman
The human remains of an Aboriginal woman from Tasmania who had lived in the early nineteenth century were returned to Hobart, Tasmania earlier today. The remains had been acquired by the Anatomy Institute in Berlin, Germany in the 1840s and, more recently, resided in the collection of Berlin’s Charité Medical Museum. The Charité Museum, in returning the […]
Posted on: June 16, 2014 by Alexander Herman
Inspired by ‘international law’ and the 1998 Washington Principles, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne recently announced that it will be restituting a portrait to the heirs of its original owner, Jewish industrialist Richard Semmel. The portrait, originally thought to be a Van Gogh original, had been part of Semmel’s collection which was dispersed and sold under duress by […]
Posted on: June 2, 2014 by Alexander Herman
As reported here late last year, the famed City of Adelaide ship had been set to leave Scotland for its name city, Adelaide in South Australia. The Australian group seeking its relocation, Clipper Ship City of Adelaide Ltd [CSCoAL], had obtained an Open General Export Licence supposedly for this purpose. The ship left and after a brief stop […]
Posted on: May 16, 2014 by Alexander Herman
This week, the Court of Appeal of Victoria in Australia, rendered an appeal decision regarding a painting by the celebrated Australian impressionist Rupert Bunny. The work has sometimes been referred to as ‘Female Reading in Sun”. The case, Levy v. Watt [2014] VSCA 60, which came down on 14 May 2014, involved an analysis of […]
Posted on: November 12, 2013 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper
Two paintings by George Stubbs sold at auction in February this year have been saved for the nation following the imposition by the DCMS of a temporary bar on their export. The paintings, dating back to 1773, of a dingo and a kangaroo sold for £5.5m and were the first depictions of these animals in […]
Posted on: by Ruth Redmond-Cooper
The Adelaide which is the oldest surviving composite clipper ship in the World having been built in Sunderland in 1864, is now expected to be exported to Australia despite a huge campaign to keep it here. The ship (which was Listed as Grade A in Scotland and is older than the Cutty Sark), was formerly in the collection of the […]