Category Archives: Uncategorized

News from the latest IAL Study Forum

Posted on: July 8, 2019 by Emily Gould

A fascinating day was enjoyed by all who braved London’s hottest day so far this year to attend IAL’s latest Study Forum held on 29th June. Topics ranged from the origins of modern copyright law to international laws on restitution to the treatment of human remains. Dr Elena Cooper (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, CREATe) gave a […]

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 […]

British Museum must recognise its own powers

Posted on: June 4, 2019 by Alexander Herman

The following commentary first appeared on The Art Newspaper website on 29 May 2019. The British Museum seems to enjoy telling the world about its statutory restrictions. Whenever would-be claimants approach the museum seeking restitution of an object from the collection, the almost mechanical response from the museum is that its trustees are prevented from doing so, […]

Latest Art Antiquity & Law issue

Posted on: May 21, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

The brand new issue of IAL’s Art Antiquity & Law quarterly journal is hot off the press and is now available in print and online via the Hein portal. This year’s first issue brings an array of articles, conference reports and a book review. Maja Dehouck discusses the regulation of illicit trafficking of cultural property […]

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 […]

Revising the definition of ‘treasure’

Posted on: May 1, 2019 by Geoffrey Bennett

Assiduous followers of the media, and possibly even those with no interest at all, may have noticed that Her Majesty’s Government has in recent months been slightly preoccupied with European legal perspectives. It therefore came as a welcome surprise that in February 2019 the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced a long-awaited […]

Talk by Alexander Herman on museums, ethics and deaccession

Posted on: March 13, 2019 by Kiri Cragin Folwell

Last week, our Assistant Director Alexander Herman gave a talk at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, on the topic of museums, law, ethics, deaccession and restitution. The talk was entitled “Values & Art: Ethics in the Management of Culture” and was part of Ryerson’s Business Ethics speaker series at the Ted Rogers School of Management. […]

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 […]

Looking ahead to 2019

Posted on: January 4, 2019 by Alexander Herman

Welcome to 2019. In many ways, this year may reverse some of the developments of 2018 – at least insofar as the art law world is concerned. The reason for this is that a number of important cases decided in 2018 are under appeal, with the appeals to be heard (and likely decided) in the […]