Co-Chair
Olivier De Baecque
This committee is concerned with all aspects of law as it relates to art, artists, and cultural heritage in the broadest context. 'Art law' is an interdisciplinary field involving tax, commercial transactions, intellectual property and private and public international law.
The Committee on Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law is concerned with all aspects of law as it relates to art, artists, and cultural heritage in the broadest context. This extends from archaeology and the protection of ancient monuments to national heritage and public and private collections to the art trade and contemporary art. 'Art law' is an interdisciplinary field involving tax (individual estates and charities), commercial transactions, intellectual property in all aspects and private and public international law.
With a membership encompassing more than 58 different countries and lawyers active in representing auction houses, museums, artists and their estates, collectors, galleries, governments in the protection of cultural heritage, and dealers in antiquities, the Committee is an ideal forum to encourage and facilitate communications among art lawyers and other legal professionals about issues concerning all aspects of the law relating to the art market, international transactions in works of art, cultural property laws and museums.
As the foremost international committee of art lawyers, members are often invited to comment on international art and cultural property issues, including discussions on international treaties such as the UNIDROIT Treaty on Cultural Property, various UNESCO conventions, WIPO initiated discussions and other treaties which affect the international trade in art and cultural property. The committee's goal is to establish a worldwide network of art and cultural property lawyers with information and discussion links to relevant NGOs, institutes of art law, and governmental organisations.
The Supreme Court of the United States issued earlier this year its long-awaited ruling in the dispute between the photographer Lynn Goldsmith and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (AWFVA) on 18 May. The Court ruled that the Foundation’s delivery to Condé Nast in 2016 of an Andy Warhol silkscreen from 1984 based on a photograph taken by Goldsmith of the musician Prince in 1981 did not qualify for the defence of fair use under the US Copyright Act’s provision that allows for that, 17 USC section 107.
Released on Aug 22, 2023
An overview of periods of limitation application to artworks transactions in France, Hungary, Italy and New York
Released on Aug 03, 2023
Under Italian law buyers of artwork that have proven to be fake or misattributed have three remedies available, which are subject to very different time limits (from one to ten years) and may determine very different results in favour of a successful plaintiff.
Released on Aug 03, 2023
We often hear in the news about paintings whose attribution has changed as a result of new information or renewed scholarship with respect to an artist’s work. An artwork’s attribution may even change multiple times in the span of decades – with the attribution going back and forth.
Released on Aug 03, 2023