Art and Culture Law

This committee is composed of attorneys with an interest in the field of art, cultural heritage, and cultural property law and who work in a variety of settings, including private practice, museums, government, and academia. This area of law is concerned with both movable and immovable property of artistic, cultural, religious and historic interest.

This section contains an extensive body of primarily U.S. case law, including both litigated cases and, notably, hard-to-find, out-of-court settlements. The material is organized under eight topics. Under each topic, relevant cases are summarized (where possible, with images of the art objects in question). There are also links to relevant U.S. statutes, foreign legislation and a glossary.

The countries of the Union, being equally animated by the desire to protect, in as effective and uniform a manner as possible, the rights of authors in their literary and artistic works, Recognizing the importance of the work of the Revision Conference held at Stockholm in 1967, Have resolved to revise the Act adopted by the Stockholm Conference, while maintaining without change Articles 1 to 20 and 22 to 26 of that Act.

It's a sad truth that the depredations of war and imperialism have sometimes had positive side effects for art history. Take the Metropolitan Museum's recent "Manet-Velázquez" show, on the influence of 17th-century Spanish painting on 19th-century French art.

The United States Department of State is responsible for implementing the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (the Act). This is the enabling legislation for the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. In accordance with the Act, United States Department of State accepts requests from countries for import restrictions on archaeological or ethnological artifacts, the pillage of which places their national cultural heritage in jeopardy.

The Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe is a unique reference work on European cultural policies and online information and monitoring system. It is regularly updated and each year a new edition of the Compendium website is published - in 2007 the 8th edition is online. In addition, the system's scope is constantly being expanded to cover newly emerging cultural policy debates and priorities.

This Framework Convention reflects a shift from the question “How and by what procedure can we preserve the heritage?” to the question “Why should we enhance its value, and for whom?”. It is based on the idea that knowledge and use of heritage form part of the citizen’s right to participate in cultural life as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Full text of Convention, Signed at Paris, 19 December 1954, Entered into force: 5 May 1955.

On April 15, 1998, the Russian parliament enacted legislation concerning the treatment to be accorded cultural property seized by Soviet troops and removed to the U.S.S.R. during and at the end of World War II. This law represents the culmination of numerous attempts by the Russian Duma and Federation Council to nationalize the "trophy art" and cultural property now in Russia. This action has been taken to establish the Russian Federation's right to "compensatory restitution" for the damages it incurred as a result of World War II.

The Working Group on Cultural Property aims to provide a forum for the exploration of issues central to cultural heritage, cultural property and the law; to exchange and develop ideas and to organize activities and presentations that are to the mutual learning of all participants. We invite guest speakers to give lectures on specific topics and also to discuss our own research.

The Edwin Ginn Library of The Fletcher School is one of the largest specialized libraries in the field of international affairs. The library’s collection of primary and secondary reference and research materials has been developed with attention to the content of The Fletcher School curriculum and the research interests of students and faculty. Ginn Library's collection covers the fields of international law and organizations; human rights; economic and political development; international energy resources and environmental matters; international security and peacekeeping; conflict negotiation; international business and finance; and the uses of the sea and outer space.

This article highlights the issues surrounding the international movement of cultural property by examining them in the context of fossil smuggling from China. The story of the Confuciusornis sanctus and a Chinese case concerning stolen fossilized dinosaur eggs serve as case studies for examination of the issues raised by the movement of cultural property between source states and market states. These cases also make vivid the deficiencies in the Chinese legal regime which is designed to protect and retain fossils in China.

Illicit trade in antiquities will be suppressed only by international co-operation. There are at present several international conventions which together provide a framework to support such co-operation. Two of the most important are the 1970 UNESCO convention and the 1995 Unidroit convention.

This section contains legislation governing the export and ownership of cultural property from dozens of countries. The legislation is presented in both summary form and as complete text; the latter in the original language and in translation.

Recommendation Concerning the International Exchange of Cultural Property, Adopted by the General Conference at its Nineteenth Session, Paris, 30 November 1976.

Legal instruments enable States to more effectively protect all forms of culture. UNESCO elaborates legal instruments in the form of declarations, recommendations or conventions, which are adopted by UNESCO's Member States.

UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, June 24, 1995.

These two sets of resources—International Cultural Property Ownership and Export Legislation (ICPOEL) and Case Law and Statutes (CLS)—will help users navigate the increasingly complex and abundant body of legislation and case law regarding the acquisition and ownership of artworks.

The origin of the ALR was The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), a not-for-profit organisation based in New York. In an attempt to deter international art theft, IFAR established an art theft archive in 1976 and began publishing the “Stolen Art Alert”. The origin of the ALR was The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), a not-for-profit organisation based in New York. In an attempt to deter international art theft, IFAR established an art theft archive in 1976 and began publishing the “Stolen Art Alert”.

Because the goal of the Art-Law Centre is to promote and coordinate research and work on the most current questions of art law, it has chosen an interdisciplinary approach by including people from both the art world and the legal world. The Centre can thus better diffuse its competence and information directly to the public, as well as to specifically interested entities (such as artists, collectors, auction houses, dealers, museums, etc.)

The Arts Law Centre of Australia is the national community legal centre for the arts. Arts Law is a not for profit company limited by guarantee which was established with the support of the Australia Council in 1983 to provide specialised legal and business advice and referral services, professional development resources and advocacy for artists and arts organisations.

The European Heritage Network (HEREIN) is a permanent information system of the Council of Europe linking European governmental departments responsible for cultural heritage conservation.

ICCROM is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the conservation of cultural heritage. Its members are individual states which have declared their adhesion to it. It exists to serve the international community as represented by its Member States, which currently number more than 125. It is the only institution of its kind with a worldwide mandate to promote the conservation of all types of cultural heritage, both movable and immovable.

CINOA is a non-profit international federation of associations which was established more than 70 years ago. It is the only international federation for antique and art dealers that represents a wide array of specialities. CINOA’s members are 30 art and antique associations from 21 countries.

ICOMOS is an international non-governmental organization of professionals, dedicated to the conservation of the world's historic monuments and sites." The web site provides, among other things, the Draft UNESCO Declaration Concerning the Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage and the World Heritage List.

The International Cultural Property Society was established by Professor John Henry Merryman in 1990 to sponsor reasoned discussion of all aspects of cultural property and heritage. The role of the Society is to provide a neutral forum for the discussion of all aspects of and interests in cultural property.

The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) is a not-for-profit educational and research organization dedicated to integrity in the visual arts. IFAR offers impartial and authoritative information on authenticity, ownership, theft, and other artistic, legal, and ethical issues concerning art objects.

CulturalHeritageLaw.org is the web-based home of The Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation. LCCHP is a nonprofit organization of lawyers, law students and interested members of the public who have joined together to promote the preservation and protection of cultural heritage resources in the United States and internationally through education and advocacy.

One of UNESCO's mandates is to pay special attention to new global threats that may affect the natural and cultural heritage and ensure that the conservation of sites and monuments contributes to social cohesion.

The arts need a protector that can help recover cultural treasure world-wide. Join in our search, exploring the world of fine art and international intrigue. Towards that proposition we provide the web's most comprehensive (multi lingual) guide to stolen art; chronicling the world's major art thefts and recovery efforts. Our intent is to bring these stories to television and new media.

Art and cultural property crime - which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines -- is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually. To recover these precious pieces--and to bring these criminals to justice--the FBI uses a dedicated Art Crime Team of 13 Special Agents to investigate, supported by three Special Trial Attorneys for prosecutions.

This site contains two fully searchable databases. The Information Database contains information and documentation from forty nine countries, including laws and policies, reports and publications, archival records and resources, current cases and relevant websites. The Object Database contains details of over 25,000 objects of all kinds – paintings, drawings, antiquities, Judaica, etc – looted, missing and/or identified from over fifteen countries.

This Web Site has been developed to assist Police Forces, across the United Kingdom, in the recovery and return of Stolen Antiques and to enable Auction Houses, Collectors and dealers to comply with the code of Due Diligence.

The Lost Art Database is run by the Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste, Germany’s central office for the documentation of lost cultural property. It was set up jointly by the Government and the Länder of the Federal Republic of Germany and registers cultural objects which as a result of persecution under the Nazi dictatorship and the Second World War were relocated, moved or seized, especially from Jewish owners.

The Interpol-U.S. National Central Bureau (USNCB), a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, serves as the United States’ representative to INTERPOL, the International Criminal Police Organization. The USNCB is the central point of contact for all INTERPOL matters in the United States.

Online resource that highlights issues related to the vulnerability of our shared cultural heritage to looting and the illicit antiquities trade.

Art Antiquity and Law is a Quarterly designed for all who value the cultural and historical environment. The principal aim of the Quarterly is to inform. It exists to tell those who work in art and antiquity about the law governing their activities and the policies behind the law. It is founded on the belief, never more confident than today, that cultural life cannot in a legal vacuum.

Newsletter of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre. Published twice a year since 1997. Opinions, articles and news.

International Journal of Cultural Property provides a vital, international, and multidisciplinary forum for the broad spectrum of views surrounding cultural property, cultural heritage, and related issues. Its mission is to develop new ways of dealing with cultural property debates, to be a venue for the proposal or enumeration of pragmatic policy suggestions, and to be accessible to a wide audience of professionals, academics, and lay readers.

Articles written by attorneys and experts worldwide discussing legal aspects related to Leisure including: art and cultural property, entertainment law, gaming, hospitality law, sports and recreation, tourism and travel.