Latest IAL News

Exhibitions Exploring Overshadowed Histories: Protecting and Correcting Collective Memory through Commemorative Art

Posted on: April 22, 2024 by Victoria Maatta

This article contains descriptions of violence which some readers may find upsetting. In March of this year, the infamous statue of transatlantic slave trader Edward Colston went on permanent display in an exhibition about the history of protest in the Bristol People gallery at M Shed.  The display follows a decision by the Bristol City […]

Art Antiquity and Law – April Issue

Posted on: April 15, 2024 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper

The April issue of 2024 Art Antiquity and Law has gone to press: hard copies will be posted out to subscribers next week, and for digital subscribers, the online version should be available via Hein very soon. This issue contains an article by Achilleas Iasonos  (Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Earth and Ocean Lab, Department of […]

Bridging Cultures and Restoring Heritage: My Journey with the Lost Western Zhou Dynasty Artefact – Feng Xingshu Gui

Posted on: April 2, 2024 by Siyi Wu

In the captivating world of art restitution and repatriation, each artefact whispers tales of ancient times and distant lands, waiting to be heard. Among these, the story of the recently repatriated Feng Xingshu Gui (丰刑叔簋) stands out – a narrative not just of rediscovery but of bridging cultures and epochs. My tenure at the Art […]

Proposals to Reform the British Museum Act Continue to Fall Under the Shadow of the Marbles

Posted on: March 25, 2024 by Charlotte Woodhead

The “legislative prison walls” of the British Museum Act In 2022, the then UK Prime Minister (the antepenultimate Prime Minister of recent times) responded to calls for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece by saying that it is for the trustees to decide. However, even if the trustees considered it appropriate to return […]

German ‘Advisory Commission’ to be Replaced by an Arbitration Framework

Posted on: March 20, 2024 by Matthias Weller

On Wednesday last week, 13 March 2024, the German Federal Government, the Governments of the Laender and the Representatives of the German Municipalities announced that they had agreed on replacing the German ‘Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property’: see here and here (at […]

Will the Real Banksy Please Stand Up!

Posted on: March 18, 2024 by Emily Gould

We know him so well, and yet we know him not at all. Banksy’s iconic images, his famous pranks and his politically-inspired street art are known the world over, yet he remains a shadowy enigma. Operating through the company Pest Control, the person (or persons) behind the Banksy brand have successfully maintained their anonymity over […]

What Next for the Stonehenge Tunnel Scheme?

Posted on: March 11, 2024 by Rebecca Hawkes-Reynolds

Stonehenge has been a permanent feature and place-marker on the landscape in Wiltshire for thousands of years. It has also a been a semi-permanent feature of headlines and as a topic on this blog. However this may soon no longer be the case, as  Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) have had their application for […]

Double Glazed: Taking Artists’ Rights Seriously and… Algorithmically

Posted on: March 4, 2024 by Chen Zhu

The Cybernetic Milkmaid What would Vermeer (1632-1675) feel if he lived until today when he suddenly discovered that his artistic style could be reproduced by state-of-the-art generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools? How would Han van Meegeren (1889-1947), a skilful art forger who infamously fooled Nazis with his faked Old Masters’ paintings (including Vermeer’s), react to […]

A Step Toward Fencing in Aberrant Artistic Appropriation

Posted on: February 19, 2024 by Molly Stech

On 25 January, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered judgements against appropriation artist Richard Prince and his co‑defendants Laurence Gagosian, the Gagosian Gallery and Blum & Poe Gallery. The cases are Graham v. Prince et al (15 cv 10160) and McNatt v. Prince et al (16 cv 08896). […]

Bonaire v. Netherlands: Climate Change Impacts on Island Communities’ Cultural Heritage Before Dutch Courts

Posted on: February 12, 2024 by Alina Holzhausen

Seven residents and Dutch nationals of Bonaire, a Dutch special municipality in the southern Caribbean, have launched, together with Greenpeace Netherlands, a legal action against the Dutch government over its failure to protect the Islanders against climate change impacts. Based on the right to life (Article 2) and the right to respect for private and […]