LAW 757 - Art Law

This field of law comprises an array of interlocking legal areas, including international contractual interpretation, the statute of limitations, the role of evidence, the interpretation and scope of international treaty provisions, the governing terms, and the provisions of global private auction houses. It also includes broad but critical subjects such as “What constitutes a work of art?” While this area has always been of broad interest, the past five years have seen an explosion of issues ranging from the internationally sensitive Elgin Marbles case to situations impacting the collection of every major global museum such as the Native American Collection of the American Museum of Natural History, the antiquity collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous highly publicized cases of art looted by the Nazis. The subject also covers purchases by legitimate domestic buyers of objects that were stolen-frequently many years prior. There is no question that this field of law will continue to become even more relevant as more variations of these issues will surface and institutions continue scrutinizing their collections.

The course will be based primarily on law reviews and other articles rather than textbooks. It will be structured as a seminar where discussions are a large component of the learning experience. Students will be assessed on a Pass/Fail basis.