Posted on: June 16, 2023 by Lilian Palmer
On 23 May, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announced in a press release that the Ivory Act 2018 will be extended to include five new species. A government consultation found that, of the 98% of respondents who expressed a preference, 93% were in favour of broadening the Act to include the […]
Posted on: January 23, 2023 by Emily Gould
In an important decision handed down at the end of last year [1] the High Court upheld most of the claims brought by an eminent purchaser against a well-known antiquities dealer in relation to the (in)authenticity of the artefacts in question. It is rare that authenticity claims reach the courts, and when they have done […]
Posted on: December 19, 2022 by Alexander Herman
2022 was a year of great change, both in the world at large and for art law in particular. We saw the end of most of the worst effects of the covid pandemic, accompanied by what appears to be a final farewell to the era of lockdowns. We saw war in Europe for the first […]
Posted on: January 5, 2022 by Alexander Herman
Is it really time to make predictions? With the uncertainty that has accompanied these last two years, likely not. As I said last year, prognostication is a perilous enterprise. What can really be said about the year ahead without including a major asterisk? So let us instead try a more modest approach, by going over […]
Posted on: December 9, 2021 by Alexander Herman
Collector Michael Steinhardt has been in the news this week, and not for the right reasons. On Monday, an agreement was announced whereby the New York DA’s Office would not prosecute Steinhardt for acquiring looted antiquities and, in exchange, Steinhardt would surrender 180 such artefacts to the DA, and these will soon (one hopes) be […]
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 […]
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 […]
Posted on: June 18, 2020 by Alexander Herman
Amidst the sad turmoil (for some) and the uncertainty (for all) brought on by the pandemic and the resultant lockdown, it is perhaps more forgivable than usual to miss an important anniversary. I am referring here to the fact that 2020 marks 50 years since the adoption of the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting […]
Posted on: June 10, 2020 by Charlotte Dunn
A UNESCO-backed research project into the illicit trade in cultural property in Germany has recently released its final report. The ‘ILLICID Project’, launched by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, aimed to increase understanding of illicit trafficking networks and financial flows linked to organised crime and terrorism. However, the findings of the final […]
Posted on: April 14, 2020 by Charlotte Dunn
The Museum of the Bible has been a site of continual controversy since its opening in November 2017. The issues it has faced range from alleged thefts and forgeries to the illicit trade in antiquities. More than anything else, the Museum’s difficulties have demonstrated the importance of careful provenance research before acquiring artefacts for a […]