The subject of art crime, and the complex legal framework of the art world, demands a concerted investigation to understand its preconditions, processes, and consequences, and the varied challenges art criminals present to our cultural and commercial institutions.
As a multi-billion-dollar industry, criminal activity relating to art might assume a wide range of forms through the deception achieved with the creation of fakes and forgeries, the crimes of theft and the subtler networks engaged in looting antiquities and money laundering. Participants will, in turn, also look at the relationships among artists, dealers, collectors, and auction houses; issues in legal title and restitution of artworks looted during the Nazi era; provenance, authenticity and the market; disputes and scandals related to forgery; trusts and estates; alternative dispute; and valuation.
Organized around a series of eight expert-led lectures, this course will provide insight drawn from a range of law firms, commercial galleries, cultural organizations, dealerships, and auction houses.
No legal background is required. The course welcomes non-lawyers with an interest in art crime as well as legal professionals from other disciplines.
This Intensive Course consists of live-streamed lectures and discussions. Recordings of the live sessions are accessible anytime during the course via our online learning platform, Canvas.
Students will learn:
- To examine the broader context of art crime and law by identifying and defining the range of illegal activities that have an impact upon the international art world.
- To consider the range of approaches for both confronting and responding to art crime, and the legal challenges and opportunities that emerge in response to these processes.
- To examine methodological approaches to provenance research and the use of this process as an integral component of due diligence within the art market.