Posted on: June 6, 2019 by Emily Gould
“Interesting and challenging times” was how the UK Museums Association Director, Sharon Heal, described the current climate for the sector in her introduction to the Association’s Annual Report last year. No more acutely are those challenges felt than by the UK’s regional museums, many of which are run by local authorities. Over half of these […]
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, […]
Posted on: May 29, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes
Even though there is currently an ongoing lawsuit in Iowa to determine what materials containing nudity prisoners should be granted access to, this is a debate that actually began much earlier. Our story begins in New Hampshire in 1942, when a ground-breaking precedent was set: the freedom of expression right granted by the constitution of […]
Posted on: May 24, 2019 by Alexander Herman
For those who haven’t heard of her, Vivian Maier was a secret photographer. She lived and worked in Chicago throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s largely as a nanny in well-to-do suburbs. She had no close family of her own and died in 2009 with little fanfare. But she had spent most of her adult […]
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 […]
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 […]
Posted on: May 14, 2019 by Stephanie Drawdy
It’s a rainy winter day in Paris, 1897. A distinguished gentleman is standing at his easel with the curtains drawn, his eyes surveying the street below. As a painter myself, I like to imagine the excitement the Impressionist Master Camille Pissarro felt as he envisioned the composition of the scene that would become Rue Saint-Honoré, Après-midi, […]
Posted on: May 10, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes
A lot of commotion was caused recently by a German right-wing party’s choice of political propaganda: the use of a 19thcentury painting with a very controversial slogan splashed across it. We are talking, of course, of Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) and Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Slave Market, a painting from 1866 currently on loan to the Clark […]
Posted on: May 8, 2019 by Kiri Cragin Folwell
We are pleased to be launching a new series at the Institute of Art and Law featuring alumni from our courses. Becky Shaw, Senior Associate at Boodle Hatfield, participated in our Diploma in Art Law. Read about her background working with the art litigation team at Boodle Hatfield and experience with distance learning at the Institute […]
Posted on: May 3, 2019 by Rebecca Hawkes-Reynolds
It is fitting that, following Geoffrey Bennett’s last post on the Treasure Act consultations in the UK, this piece would also touch on a topic close to our hearts: the law of treasure. For four men in England last month the dream of finding treasure became a reality. While partaking in a four day long […]