Category Archives: United Kingdom

Court decision on ‘technicality’ prevents claim over allegedly fake antiquity

Posted on: September 1, 2021 by Alexander Herman

On 9 August a decision came down from the High Court of England and Wales that imparts an important lesson about limitation periods and related timelines for the service of proceedings. The decision also reveals useful information about a particular dispute over allegedly fake antiquities, showing just what happens when negotiations between buyer and seller […]

New guidance from UK Government on money laundering risks for the art trade

Posted on: July 20, 2021 by Emily Gould and Alyssa Weitkamp

On 28th June, the UK Government published further guidance on the application of anti-money laundering (AML) rules to the UK art trade. As many readers will be aware, since January 2020, anti-money laundering regulations have applied to art market participants, or AMPs (traders or intermediaries involved in the sale or purchase of works of art […]

Whistler’s portrait and copyright in artistic works

Posted on: July 15, 2021 by Elena Cooper

This month sees the opening of a major new exhibition of the work of the artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) at the Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, which holds one of the largest Whistler collections in the world: Whistler: Art and Legacy (9 July-31 October 2021). In this blog, I reflect on how one painting by […]

Report on our Law and Photography seminar

Posted on: July 3, 2021 by Alyssa Weitkamp

On Thursday, 1st July we hosted a seminar entitled ‘Law and Photography’ where various aspects of photography and its relationship with the law were discussed. During this seminar, our speakers focused on copyright, licensing, moral rights and privacy rights. The seminar was chaired and moderated by Simon Stokes of Blake Morgan and Alexander Herman of […]

UK to repeal import prohibition derived from EU law

Posted on: May 25, 2021 by Alexander Herman

The UK government last week began the process to repeal a prohibition on the import of cultural goods unlawfully removed from their country of origin. Seeing as this repeal could potentially damage the reputation of the UK’s art market, one expert body is urging the UK to take additional measures to minimise any risks associated […]

An art market without rules? The new Freeport opportunity in the UK

Posted on: April 15, 2021 by Eve Gatenby

“Our clients choose us because we have no priority above their property,” remarks the guide touring Robert Pattinson and John David Washington’s characters through a freeport in Christopher Nolan’s 2020 thriller Tenet. The underground vaults they are walking through are alluringly filled with artworks that give subtle hints at Impressionist and Abstract Expressionist masterpieces. These two characters […]

Museum ethics: when the law plays catch up

Posted on: March 23, 2021 by Alexander Herman

Readers of this blog will know of our interest in a particular piece of EU law that came into effect throughout the EU territory on 28th December 2020. This predated the end of the Brexit Transition Period by three days and so applied to the UK as well, at least initially. The legislation was Regulation […]

Report on latest study forum

Posted on: February 10, 2021 by Georgiana Stables

On Saturday 6th February, we hosted our second virtual study forum. It was a full day of captivating and perceptive talks by a range of speakers within the art law field. To kick-start the day, Dr Donna Yates (Associate Professor, Maastricht University) spoke about a Cambodian sculpture stolen from Koh Ker during the Cambodian Civil […]

Looking ahead to 2021

Posted on: January 5, 2021 by Alexander Herman

If 2020 taught us anything it’s that making predictions is a futile – perhaps perilous – exercise. Looking back at our predictions for 2020 from last January only confirms this. Who would have thought that a global pandemic would tear through the fabric of our cozy existence, all the while upsetting a number of accepted […]

UK government announces change to export licensing system

Posted on: December 22, 2020 by Alexander Herman

If the end of year is necessarily a busy time, this has only been accentuated by the chaos wreaked by the pandemic and, for those in the UK, the impending end of the Brexit transition period (which expires on 31 December). We can certainly say that the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport […]