Art law

Art sits where money, emotion and history meet, and the law has to account for all three. A painting can be an investment, a family memory and a piece of cultural heritage at the same time, and each of those claims comes with its own rules. Most questions surface at a moment of transaction — a sale, a loan, an inheritance, an export — when someone asks for proof of what everyone had simply assumed.

Art law governs who owns a work, whether it is what it is said to be, and what may be done with it:

• the rules on ownership and title, and on the buyer who acquired in good faith;
• the rules on authenticity, attribution and the liability of experts and sellers;
• the rules on sales, auctions and the duties of galleries and dealers;
• the rules on loans, consignment and the exhibition of works;
• the rules on copyright, resale rights and the moral rights of artists;
• the rules on provenance, restitution and works lost or looted in the past;
• the rules on cultural heritage, export licences and protected objects;
• the rules on insuring, storing and transporting works of art;
• the rules on collections in succession, donation and foundations.

Our lawyers can support you in all these areas of law.