Posted on: January 18, 2021 by Rebecca Hawkes-Reynolds
Yesterday, Sunday, 17 January 2021, the Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick announced his plans to introduce new legal protections for historic statues and plaques which will be presented to Parliament imminently. The aim of these new measures is for any change to such monuments to go through a system of approval, whether through listed building consent […]
Posted on: January 7, 2021 by Stephanie Drawdy
In March 2020, the U.S. State Department issued the ‘Just Act Report’, a 196-page document with a laudable goal – furthering long-delayed justice for Holocaust victims, survivors and heirs. It is described as an “essential tool” to show the U.S. Congress where restitution efforts are lagging across the globe. The rather disheartening results show a […]
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 […]
Posted on: December 31, 2020 by Alexander Herman
And now for our year-in-review. What can be said about 2020 that hasn’t already been said? It was a challenging, unprecedented and heartbreaking year on the whole. The larger issues at play have certainly overtaken what additions and shifts may have occurred in the art law world. In fact, looking over the prognosis we made […]
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 […]
Posted on: December 17, 2020 by Alexander Herman
An interesting debate has taken place in France between its two chambers of Parliament: the Senate and the National Assembly. It has arisen in the context of a Bill presented at the National Assembly on 16 July to restitute to the countries of Benin and Senegal a total of 27 items held within French public […]
Posted on: December 14, 2020 by Emily Gould
An intriguing and long-running saga involving an alleged Old Master painting, a London art dealer, a US investor and an international auction house appears to have reached its conclusion. For those following the case of Sotheby’s v Weiss Limited and Fairlight Art Ventures LLP, with all its twists and turns, the latest (and possibly the […]
Posted on: December 11, 2020 by Rebecca Hawkes-Reynolds
On Friday 2nd December 2020 it is likely that many archaeologists, curators and metal detectorists woke up pleased at the announcement from the Government that the definition of treasure for the Treasure Act 1996 will be revised. However, it is also equally probable that the same number were perplexed and worried as to how this […]
Posted on: December 9, 2020 by Alexander Herman
The Brexit Transition Period is set to end on 31st December at midnight Brussels time, 11.00 pm in the UK – everyone knows that. But what many people do not seem to know, even those in the cultural sector, is that by happenstance a particular provision of EU law will come into effect in the […]
Posted on: November 23, 2020 by Rebecca Hawkes-Reynolds
On Thursday 12 November 2020, Secretary of State for Transport (SoS) Grant Shapps issued a letter granting permission for the construction of a dual carriageway two mile long tunnel that will reroute the existing A303 south of Stonehenge. The scheme is estimated to cost £1.7 billion. This road is the main link between south-east and […]