Latest IAL News

The Smart Fund: How Digital Devices Can Pay Back Artists While Supporting the UK’s Creative Industry

Posted on: November 27, 2023 by Laura Villarraga Albino

A few weeks ago, the UK’s cultural industry organisations presented evidence to Parliament regarding the challenges faced by creators and performers in receiving fair compensation and, most importantly, the relevance of the Smart Fund. The initiative seeks to ensure fair remuneration to creators for the access, distribution and storage of their work on digital devices. […]

Seminar Report on Art Law Unveiled: Navigating Modern and Contemporary Art Transactions, 9 November

Posted on: November 20, 2023 by Laura Villarraga Albino

Two weeks ago, the Institute of Art and Law and Wedlake Bell jointly hosted the seminar “Art Law Unveiled: Navigating Modern and Contemporary Art Transactions”. Legal issues surrounding this area were addressed, providing a high-level forum for discussing practical issues, such as art contracts, artists’ representation, the authentication of artworks and the role of collective […]

Munich Regional Court Makes Decision on Joint Authorship of “Paris Bar” Works

Posted on: November 13, 2023 by Adrienne Bauer

The Paris Bar in Berlin’s Kantstraße is a traditional meeting place for the arts and culture scene of the German capital and a true institution. Three paintings depicting this very bar have now become the subject of an interesting copyright decision by the Munich Regional Court. Specifically, it concerns the works “Paris Bar (Version 1-3)” […]

Anindilyakwa People Celebrate On-Country Return of Heritage Repatriated by Manchester Museum

Posted on: November 6, 2023 by Elizabeth Pearson

The Anindilyakwa People will hold an on-country return celebration on Groote Eylandt on 21 November 2023 for 174 cultural heritage items repatriated from Manchester Museum. The repatriated cultural heritage items include 70 culturally significant dadikwakwa-kwa (toy dolls used by Anindilyakwa girls, decorated with ochre designs and cloth), seven errumungkwa (arm bands), a turtle shell map, […]

Exploring Artist’s Resale Right in Latin America’s Growing Art Market

Posted on: October 30, 2023 by Laura Villarraga Albino

The recent report from DACS reveals that since 2006, almost £120 million in Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) royalties have been distributed to over 6,023 artists and heirs in the UK. ARR plays a significant role in the UK’s art ecosystem, contributing directly to artists’ practice and their legacies with minimal impact on art market participants. […]

Book Launch for New Publication on Parthenon Marbles Dispute by IAL Director

Posted on: October 18, 2023 by Ephraim Tan

The dispute over the Parthenon (or Elgin) Marbles is known to many. Yet, the issues in dispute have often been clouded by rhetoric and the parties’ entrenched positions. What are the legalities which surround the Marbles’ removal from Athens in the first years of the 19th century? What is the ethical situation of their continued […]

Art Antiquity and Law – October Issue

Posted on: October 11, 2023 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

The October issue of Art Antiquity and Law is now back from the printers and hard copies will be sent out to subscribers this week and online subscribers will be able to access it very soon. This issue contains articles on a range of topics starting with an analysis of the potential impact of climate […]

V&A Agreement with Yemen to Care for Ancient Objects Found in London Shop

Posted on: September 27, 2023 by Hugh Johnson-Gilbert

Last week the V&A announced that it had reached an agreement with the Republic of Yemen (‘Yemen’) to research and temporarily care for four ancient carved funerary stelae that had been discovered by an archaeology enthusiast in an interior design shop in East London. The museum’s announcement explained that the objects, dated to the second […]

US Copyright Requirement for ‘Human Authorship’ Enforced in AI Test Case – But that “Bedrock” May Be Changing

Posted on: September 22, 2023 by Stephanie Drawdy

Neither the US Constitution nor the US Copyright Act mandates ‘human authorship’ for copyright. Yet, the US Copyright Office (USCO) has come out strong in its requirement of the human element, denying registration to computer-generated work on that basis and even winning summary judgment in a federal case related to one such denial. Why then […]

Why Italy Should Allow Venice to be Put on the UNESCO List of Endangered Sites

Posted on: September 14, 2023 by Anna Somers Cocks

It is a simple truth that idealistic organisations founded by charismatic individuals, or established in response to extraordinary circumstances, decline the further that time carries them from their Big Bang of fervour and faith. Such a decline is well underway, unfortunately, with the World Heritage Sites, probably the best-known part of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, […]