Posted on: January 23, 2020 by Charlotte Dunn
President Emmanuel Macron originally promised to return 26 artefacts, currently held in the Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac in Paris, to Benin in 2018. These objects were taken as spoils from the Kingdom of Dahomey in 1892, as part of French colonial military action. Macron’s promise was made in response to the publication of the […]
Posted on: November 7, 2019 by Alexander Herman
As those who have followed our courses (especially our IP Diploma) will know, a big fanfare is often made about the possibilities of the ‘quotation’ exception introduced into UK copyright law five years ago. For institutions that are often users of copyright-protected material, like museums, galleries, archives and libraries, the new exception came with a […]
Posted on: October 29, 2019 by Alexander Herman
The past month has been a busy one at the IAL. Not only did we run our annual Diploma in Law and Collections Management in London and a Saturday Study Forum, but we also provided a series of in-house training sessions in the UK and Qatar. We began developing these sessions over the last year […]
Posted on: October 18, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes
As London is once more taken over by climate change protests, a recent news story from the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) serves as yet another (very timely) reminder that the arts and cultural sector can no longer remain isolated from the climate change debate, as we have previously discussed here. Just days before Extinction Rebellion’s […]
Posted on: October 4, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes
September was, as usual, an eventful month for the art world and the cultural heritage sector. After the lull of the summer months, there were a number of interesting events and developments that took place both in the UK and abroad. Today, we will be looking at two developments that were important from a collections […]
Posted on: September 9, 2019 by Emily Gould
What is the role of the museum in 21st century society? Not a simple question, certainly, but one which a standing committee of ICOM, the International Council of Museums, has been actively considering for almost a year in pursuit of a new way of defining a ‘museum’. The process was intended to have reached its […]
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: September 26, 2018 by Holly Woodhouse
Hedge funds are competing with a consortium of British museums to purchase 5,500 artefacts salvaged from the Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912 with the loss of 1,500 lives. The current owner of the artefacts, Premier Exhibitions, is selling them after filing for bankruptcy in the United States in 2016. The […]
Posted on: August 30, 2018 by Hélène Deslauriers
After more than a year of press coverage, protests and condemnation of the Berkshire Museum Board of Trustees, the Berkshire Museum’s deaccession of 40 works from its collection is nearing completion. In addition, the Board of Trustees finally came to an agreement with the Attorney-General of Massachusetts. Here are the salient points: The Attorney General is […]