Category Archives: Italy

Da Vinci show opens at the Louvre after latest loan issue resolved

Posted on: October 25, 2019 by Charlotte Dunn

This week, the Louvre’s highly anticipated Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the artist’s death, opened its doors to the public. However, the process of negotiating the necessary loan agreements with Italy has been complex and controversial. Just days before opening, the loan of one of Da Vinci’s most famous works, the […]

New issue of IAL’s Art Antiquity and Law journal just released

Posted on: October 24, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

Marking the beginning of a new academic year, the latest issue of Art Antiquity & Law, IAL’s quarterly journal, is hot off the press and brings a number of articles ranging from topics such as musical instruments and their legal framework to arbitration, art theft, export of cultural goods and the repatriation claims for the […]

Dispute over the Isleworth Mona Lisa goes to Italian courtrooms

Posted on: September 25, 2019 by Eleonora Chielli

The Court of Florence is dealing with a case involving the ‘Isleworth Mona Lisa’, a painting attributed to Leonardo, though with some uncertainty. Whilst the question of attribution is not the focus of this post, it should be noted that following a debate lasting for more than a century about the attribution of this painting, […]

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 […]

Attributed Giotto now stuck in legal limbo

Posted on: July 24, 2018 by Alexander Herman

Yesterday, an Italian painting with a colourful history had its fate sealed by a UK court. The Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court has decided that Arts Council England (ACE), the delegated authority that issues export licences for cultural property leaving UK shores, was not the ‘competent authority’ to issue an EU licence for […]

Strict export rules apply to Dalí painting

Posted on: December 10, 2015 by Alexander Herman

A recent report involving a Dalí painting, Figura en una taula (pictured below), has once again brought the issue of cultural export controls into focus. The Dalí painting, owned by an Italian national named Elena Quarestani, has been blocked by the Italian authorities from leaving the country. This is because it has been subject to a ‘declaration of […]

Switzerland: Repatriation of 68 Cultural Artefacts to Italy

Posted on: March 26, 2014 by Nina M. Neuhaus

In early March, the Public Prosecutor of the Canton of Basle-City transferred the last 68 out of a total of 4,536 cultural artefacts to Italy. This concludes long lasting proceedings in international mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. In 2000, the Italian authorities had requested Switzerland’s mutual legal assistance in criminal proceedings against an antiquities […]

Italy threatens to sue UK liquidator

Posted on: February 6, 2014 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

The Art Newspaper has reported that Italy is threatening to sue the liquidator of the assets of the disgraced antiquities dealer Robin Symes if the liquidator fails to provide information in relation to a cache of around 700 ancient objects which the Italian authorities claim left the country illegally. It is reported that Italy believes that […]