LibGuides: Visual Arts, Cultural Heritage and the Law: Home

International Agreements

Databases

International Art and Heritage Law database provides a survey of current national legislation for the protection of cultural heritage in the member states of the European Union and their participation in international (UNESCO and UNIDROIT) and regional (EU and Council of Europe) instruments in the field. It provides links to the full texts of treaties, constitutional provisions and laws covering movable and immovable, tangible and intangible cultural heritage and language.

Blogs

The Art Law Blog

Art Law: Recent Developments in Art Litigation and Art Finance

Chasing Aphrodite - "the hunt for looted antiquities in the world's museums"

Clancco: The Source for Art and Law

Cultural Heritage Lawyer

Illicit Cultural Property - regular updates on thefts, antiquities looting, and legal developments in the field

Periodicals

International Journal of Cultural Property

Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society

E-Treatises and Research Guides

Art, Artifact, Architecture and Museum Law
Art, Artifact, Architecture & Museum Law provides expert examination of the policies and laws concerning the visual arts-the first work of its kind to link procedure, substance, and evidence and to present an integrated analysis of the social, policy, economic, and cultural issues so crucial to arts transactions and litigation. This e-treatise is available on Westlaw e-Treatises (Westlaw login and password required)

Cultural Property : A Legal Research Guide
Rebecca Lutkenhaus
K3791 .L88 2012 Balcony
This guide contains information on primary law, secondary resources and non-legal resources relating to cultural property, using a timeline approach to also show the development of this area of law. It includes listings of international conventions with annotations summarizing the impact of the conventions and whether these conventions are binding and upon whom. Also contains information on non-governmental organizations concerned with cultural property and ethical codes that relate to the topic, many of which focus on theft, looting and provenance.

Legal Protection of Cultural Property: A Selective Resource Guide
This online research guide features important sources of information, both print and electronic, concerning the protection of cultural property in wartime, international trade in cultural property, and the laws applicable to the illicit traffic of art and antiquities.

Books at the Law Library

Art and Cultural Heritage by Barbara T. Hoffman (Editor)
Call Number: K3791 .A97 2006 Balcony
Art and Cultural Heritage is appropriately, but not solely, about national and international law respecting cultural heritage. It is a bubbling cauldron of law mixed with ethics, philosophy, politics and working principles looking at how cultural heritage law, policy and practice should be sculpted from the past as the present becomes the future. Art and cultural heritage are two pillars on which a society builds its identity, its values, its sense of community and the individual. The authors explore these demanding concerns, untangle basic values, and look critically at the conflicts and contradictions in existing art and cultural heritage law and policy in its diverse sectors. The rich and provocative contributions collectively provide a reasoned discussion of the issues from a multiplicity of views to permit the reader to understand the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of the cultural heritage debate.
Art and Law: The Copyright Debate by Morten Rosenmeier (Editor); Stina Teilmann (Editor)
Call Number: K1460 .A78 2005 Balcony
Art: imagination, expression, freedom, making. Law: regulation, statute, restriction, limitation. Between these two very distinct domains of human activity and social discourse there is a border of high tension: copyright.
Art Law in a Nutshell by Leonard D. DuBoff
Call Number: KF4288.Z9 D8 2006 Balcony
Duboff's Art Law in a Nutshell overviews art as an investment, from copyrights to trademarks, and examines issues involving museums and collecting. Subjects covered include the customs definition, international art movement, and the victim of war. Explores auctions; authentication; insurance; and tax problems for collectors, dealers, and artists. Also addresses the working artist, aid to the arts, moral and economic rights, and freedom of expression.
Controversies by Daniel Girardin (Editor); Christian Pirker (Text by)
Call Number: TR15 .G5713 2012 Basement
Since its invention in 1839, photography has often been at the center of important ethical debates and sensational trials, and photographers have frequently had to undergo censorship or manipulation of their work (sometimes with important repercussions for their reputations). This volume brings together a wide range of images, from the early days of photography to the present, that have been the focus of controversy or of legal proceedings. Some of these pictures are well known; others are published here for the first time. Controversiespermits us a better understanding of how a society or culture perceives itself, enabling us to consider contemporary debates with a more critical eye. The book features works by Michael Light, Oliviero Toscani, Gary Gross, Frank Fournier, Andres Serrano, Annelies Strba, Marc Garanger, Man Ray and Lewis Carroll, among others.
Cultural Heritage in Transit by Deborah Kapchan (Editor)
Call Number: K487.C8 C86 2014 Balcony
Are human rights universal? The immediate response is "yes, of course." However, that simple affirmation assumes agreement about definitions of the "human" as well as what a human is entitled to under law, bringing us quickly to concepts such as freedom, property, and the inalienability of both. The assumption that we all mean the same things by these terms carries much political import, especially given that different communities (national, ethnic, religious, gendered) enact some of the most basic categories of human experience (self, home, freedom, sovereignty) differently. But whereas legal definitions often seek to eliminate ambiguity in order to define and protect the rights of humanity, ambiguity is in fact inherently human, especially in performances of heritage where the rights to sense, to imagine, and to claim cultural identities that resist circumscription are at play. Cultural Heritage in Transit examines the intangibilities of human rights in the realm of heritage production, focusing not only on the ephemeral culture of those who perform it but also on the ambiguities present in the idea of cultural property in general--who claims it? who may use it? who should not but does? In this volume, folklorists, ethnologists, and anthropologists analyze the practice and performance of culture in particular contexts--including Roma wedding music, Trinidadian wining, Moroccan verbal art, and Neopagan rituals--in order to draw apart the social, political, and aesthetic materialities of heritage production, including inequities and hierarchies that did not exist before. The authors collectively craft theoretical frameworks to make sense of the ways the rights of nations interact with the rights of individuals and communities when the public value of artistic creations is constituted through international law. Contributors: Valdimar Tr. Hafstein, Deborah Kapchan, Barbro Klein, Sabina Magliocco, Dorothy Noyes, Philip W. Scher, Carol Silverman.
Cultural Heritage Issues by James A. R. Nafziger; Ann M. Nicgorski
Call Number: K3791 .C848 2009 Balcony
The global community, dependent as always on the cooperation of nation states, is gradually learning to address the serious threats to the cultural heritage of our disparate but shared civilizations. The legacy of conquest, colonialization, and commerce looms large in defining and explaining these threats.
Cultural Property Law by Caroline M. Blanco; Sherry Hutt; Walter E. Stern; Stan N. Harris
Call Number: KF4310 .C85 2004 Balcony
Cultural Property Law is a practical guide to the application and interpretation of the statutes and codes that direct the management, protection, and preservation of cultural property.
Cultural Resource Laws and Practice by Thomas F. King
Call Number: KF4310 .K56 2013 Balcony
In this fourth edition of the CRM classic, Thomas F. King shares his expertise in dealing with laws regulating the use of cultural resources. With wry insight, he explains the various federal, state, and local laws governing the protection of resources, how they have been interpreted, how they operate in practice, and even how they are sometimes in contradiction with each other. He provides helpful advice on how to ensure regulatory compliance in dealing with archaeological sites, historic buildings, urban districts, sacred sites and objects, shipwrecks, and archives. King also offers careful guidance through the confusing array of federal, state, and tribal offices concerned with CRM. Featuring updated analysis and treatments of key topics, this new edition is a must-have for archaeologists and students, historic preservationists, tribal governments, and others working with cultural resources.
The Expert Versus the Object by Ronald D. Spencer (Editor); Eugene Victor Thaw (Foreword by)
Call Number: N8790 .E86 2004 Basement
The authenticity of visual art has always commanded the attention of experts, dealers, collectors, and the art-minded public. Is it "real" or "original" is a way of asking what am I buying? What do I own? What am I looking at? And today more sophisticated questions are being asked: How is authenticity determined and what weight does this determination have in court? This book of essays proposes to answer those questions. Three lines of inquiry are basic to determining authenticity: a connoisseur's evaluation, historical documentation or provenance, and scientific testing. The essays in this book clarify the nature of the methods outlined above and explain, based on case law, the present status of authentication issues in court.
Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts, 5th ed. (text for class) by John Henry Merryman
Call Number: KF4288.A7 M47 2007 Reserve
Since its first edition in 1979, Law, Ethics And The Visual Arts established itself as the leading art law text among law professors, students, and practitioners. This new and newly illustrated, fifth edition, revised in collaboration with Stephen K. Urice, incorporates recent changes in treaty, statutory, and case law. it includes discussion of recent developments from the resurgence of iconoclasm to military conflicts' depredations on cultural property. As in earlier editions, The authors present legal issues in their historical contexts. The broad range of topics addressed in the 5th edition, makes the text especially adaptable for use in multiple classroom settings. These topics include: U.S. museums' return of works of art and antiquities to claimants such as Holocaust survivors and foreign nations Artist's rights such as copyright and moral rights International movement of art and antiquities Fakes and forgeries in the art market The inner workings of art auctions Plundering and destruction of works of art in times of war and military conflict Censorship of obscene or politically challenging works of art and many more In this edition, documents previously presented in a separate documentary appendix have been integrated into the text to provide immediate access to important treaties and other materials. Whether you need to understand something as provocative as who owns the past, or something as mundane as whether a museum can sell a work of art to fix the roof, Law, Ethics And The Visual Arts provides the information you need. it combines unassailable scholarship with a deeply humanistic approach, recognizing that law and art each "impose a measure of order on the disorder of experience without stifling the underlying diversity, spontaneity, and disarray" (Paul Freund).
Legal Perspectives on Cultural Resources by Sarah A. Herr; Jennifer R. Richman (Editor); Christopher A. Amato (Contribution by); Marion P. Forsyth (Contribution by); Lynne Sebastian (Contribution by); Marilyn Phelan (Contribution by); Keith W. Kintigh (Contribution by)
Call Number: KF8210.A57 L44 2004 Balcony
Collection of original writings on legal aspects of cultural resources protection from practicing lawyers and judges. Visit our website for sample chapters!
The Old Bridge of Mostar and Increasing Respect for Cultural Property in Armed Conflict by Jadranka Petrovic
Call Number: K3791 .P48 2013 Balcony
Although it is precious to all humanity, including future generations, cultural property is targeted wilfully during armed conflict. In the litany of other war crimes the wilful destruction of cultural property is pushed from centre stage. The deliberate destruction of the Old Bridge of Mostar is emblematic of tragedies wrought on priceless cultural objects internationally. Drawing on the relevant rules of international humanitarian law and the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, this book analyses the normative implications of the deliberate targeting and destruction of the Old Bridge and also examines enforcement efforts in order to identify issues relating to international legal protection of cultural property arising from this incident. The famous Old Bridge in the southern Bosnia-Herzegovina's city of Mostar was officially reopened Friday, 23 July 2004, almost 11 years after it was destroyed during the country's 1992-1995 war. The 27-meter-long arched Mostar Old Bridge was built in 1566 by a Turkish architect during the Ottoman Empire rule in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and was destroyed on 9 November 1993, when Bosnian Croat troops shelled one of its legs. At that time the Old Bridge was under the UNESCO's protection as a monument of an exceptional artistic and structural value. A total of 1088 blocks of white stone, taken from the same quarry as the stones that were originally built in the bridge, were used for the reconstruction of the famous bridge. ANP/EPA/EELIPPO MONTEFORTE Book jacket.
Presenting Archaeology in Court by Marion Forsyth (Editor); David Tarler (Editor); Sherry Hutt (Editor)
Call Number: KF4310 .P74 2006 Balcony
The passage of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) in 1979 was a watershed moment in the movement to protect cultural objects against looting. This brief volume provides practical help to those who wish to use the provisions of ARPA-archaeo

U.S. and Intergovernmental Organizations

United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Cultural Property Protection

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Council of Europe Culture, Heritage and Diversity

European Union Creative Europe from the European Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Alternative Dispute Resolution for Art and Cultural Heritage - provides dispute resolution advice and case administration services to help parties resolve disputes arising in the area of art and cultural heritage

Nongovernmental and Other Organizations

American Alliance of Museums

American Bar Association Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee

American Society of International Law EISIL database "cultural property" materials

The Appraisal Foundation

Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA)

Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation

Museum Security Network

SAFE - Saving Antiquities for Everyone

U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield

Books in the Main Library

Censoring Culture by Robert Atkins; Svetlana Mintcheva; National Coalition Against Censorship
Call Number: NX180 .F74 C46 2006 (Main Library 7th Floor)
An anthology of current cutting-edge thinking on the complex issues of censorship and freedom of expression in the arts, journalism, and new media, with contributions from legal scholars, art historians cultural theorists, librarians and psychoanalysts.
Prohibiting Plunder by Wayne Sandholtz
Call Number: K3791 .S26 2007 (Main Library 2nd Floor)
Prohibiting Plunder traces and explains the emergence of international rules against wartime looting of cultural treasures, and explores how anti-plunder norms have developed over the past 200 years.

Repatriation Resources

Documentation Project - Project for the Documentation of Wartime Cultural Losses

Holocaust-Era Assets - U.S. National Archives collections

Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal - by American Association of Museums

Stolen Art Resources

Art Loss Register - private database of lost and stolen art (includes case studies)

INTERPOL Works of Art - lists stolen and recovered works

Miscellaneous Resources

ArThemis - case notes about art and cultural property disputes

Code of Ethics for Museums

Hein Online Subject Compilations - browse subject list

International Code of Ethics for Dealers in Cultural Property - UNESCO