Posted on: April 3, 2023 by Alexander Herman
An incredible piece of news dropped on the rather inauspicious time of Friday afternoon. This was the announcement of a plan by the National Portrait Gallery in London (NPG) and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to jointly acquire the famous ‘Portrait of Omai’ by Joshua Reynolds (left), a work that has been export deferred […]
Posted on: February 23, 2022 by Emily Gould
The mobility of works of art, people and almost everything else has been severely restricted over the past two years by the Covid-19 pandemic. Fittingly, then, as international travel becomes possible once again, the IAL’s first in-person seminar since February 2020 was dedicated to the topic of art exports. It was a pleasure to welcome […]
Posted on: March 19, 2020 by Kiri Cragin Folwell
On Monday 16 March, Arts Council England announced the appointment of the Institute of Art and Law (IAL) to develop new guidance for museums on the restitution and repatriation of cultural objects. The guidance, which will be published in Autumn 2020, will aim to encourage a more proactive and coordinated approach across UK museums by […]
Posted on: June 25, 2019 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes
Last Wednesday, the Institute of Art & Law together with Maurice Turnor Gardner hosted a number of talks and panels on the topic of ‘art on the move’ and the legal issues involved from title and export controls to bailment and the impact of Brexit. Speaking to a packed room, MTG’s and IAL’s teams were […]
Posted on: March 8, 2019 by Alexander Herman
The IAL recently submitted a response to a consultation on export controls released by the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). The consultation related to a recent proposal to introduce a legally binding offer into the mechanism by which would-be exporters are required to accept fair matching offers from UK institutions (or […]
Posted on: July 24, 2018 by Alexander Herman
Yesterday, an Italian painting with a colourful history had its fate sealed by a UK court. The Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court has decided that Arts Council England (ACE), the delegated authority that issues export licences for cultural property leaving UK shores, was not the ‘competent authority’ to issue an EU licence for […]
Posted on: August 12, 2015 by Alexander Herman
The famous Sekhemka statue is in the news again. This is the Egyptian Old Kingdom sculpture thought to represent a court official that had once been in the possession of Northampton Borough Council and displayed at the Northampton Museum. The statue sold at auction last year for £15.76 million, but not before garnering controversy on a number […]