Tag Archives: van gogh

Artwork-Based Activism, Climate Change and the Right to Protest

Posted on: June 26, 2023 by Tom Lewis

On 12 June 2023 two environmental protesters were convicted by a Vatican court of aggravated damage  to the Laocoön statue, one of the most precious treasures of the Vatican Museums’ collection, believed to have been carved in Rhodes around 40-30 BCE. The protestors, Guido Viero and Ester Goffi, are members of the group Last Generation […]

Attacks on art and the law’s response: what fate awaits the Van Gogh soup throwers?

Posted on: October 17, 2022 by Emily Gould

Protests involving works of art and cultural property are nothing new. From the slashing of the Rokeby Venus in the National Gallery in 1914 to the defacing of a Rothko mural at Tate Modern almost a century later, those seeking to draw attention to a cause have long recognised the publicity value of attacks on […]

Art Crime in Current Times

Posted on: May 1, 2020 by Charlotte Dunn

There is no doubt that the current times have caused extraordinary changes to daily life. There have been major impacts on every aspect of society, including how, when and where crime will occur. Thankfully, in general, crime has fallen since the introduction of lockdown measures in the UK. However, as noted in this article by […]

Response of the museum sector to the coronavirus pandemic

Posted on: April 10, 2020 by Emily Gould

In a blog post last week, we discussed the many ramifications of the Coronavirus pandemic on contracts. The effects are being felt by businesses and individuals in all sectors across the globe, and museums are certainly not immune to the challenges presented. The inevitable cancellations of exhibitions involves disrupting contractual arrangements on many levels, from […]

Russian Revolution(s) at the British Library

Posted on: April 28, 2017 by Alexander Herman

An excellent show has begun today at the British Library in London called ‘Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths‘. It offers a view into some of the most important – and iconic – texts and visual images of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that marked not only Russia, but also the world. Instead of focusing solely on […]

Australia makes its first Nazi art restitution

Posted on: June 16, 2014 by Alexander Herman

Inspired by ‘international law’ and the 1998 Washington Principles, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne recently announced that it will be restituting a portrait to the heirs of its original owner, Jewish industrialist Richard Semmel. The portrait, originally thought to be a Van Gogh original, had been part of Semmel’s collection which was dispersed and sold under duress by […]

Francis Bacon and John Edwards – a fruitful relationship?

Posted on: May 15, 2014 by Alexander Herman

On Tuesday, a tryptic by artist Francis Bacon of his partner and confidant John Edwards sold for $80.8 million (£47.9 million). While the auction was also important for sales of works by Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Alexander Calder – and for reaffirming the economic strength of a resurgent modern and contemporary art market – the prices […]