In the age of economic globalisation, do art and heritage matter? Once the domain of elitist practitioners and scholars, the governance of cultural heritage and the destiny of iconic artefacts have emerged as the new frontier of international law, making headlines and attracting the varied interests of academics and policy-makers, museum curators and collectors, human rights activists and investment lawyers and artists and economists, just to mention a few. The return of cultural artefacts to their legitimate owners, the recovery of underwater cultural heritage and the protection and promotion of artistic expressions are just some of the pressing issues addressed by this book. Contemporary intersections between art, cultural heritage and the market are complicated by a variety of ethical and legal issues, which often describe complex global relations. Should works of art be treated differently from other goods? What happens if a work of art, currently exhibited in a museum, turns out to have originally been looted? What is the relevant legal framework? What should be done with ancient shipwrecks filled with objects from former colonies? Should such objects be kept by the finders? Should they be returned to the country of origin? This book addresses these different questions while highlighting the complex interplay between legal and ethical issues in the context of cultural governance. The approach is mainly legal but interdisciplinary aspects are considered as well.

Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Law is one of the first and most comprehensive legal casebooks to address the rapidly emerging fields of art and cultural heritage law. It is also distinctive in its extensive use of an interdisciplinary approach, with accompanying images to illustrate the artworks discussed in the legal materials. The fourth edition continues the tradition of the earlier editions in focusing on the meaning of the art works and cultural objects that are at the heart of an increasing number of legal disputes. This book addresses artists' rights (freedom of expression, copyright, and moral rights), the functioning of the art market (dealers and auction houses, warranties of quality and authenticity, transfer of title and recovery of stolen art works, and the role of museums), and cultural heritage (including the fate of art works and cultural objects in time of war; the international trade in art works and cultural objects; the historic, archaeological, and underwater heritage of the United States; and indigenous cultures, focusing on restitution of Native American cultural objects and human remains and the appropriation of indigenous culture). The inclusion of images of many of the art works and cultural objects at issue helps students to understand why these disputes occur and why the litigants feel so strongly about the outcomes. The fourth edition retains the basic structure of the earlier editions while updating all relevant case law, legislation, and policies. It includes cutting-edge legal developments, such as Cariou v. Prince, the Berkshire Museum deaccessioning decision, Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery v. District of Columbia, the Knoedler Gallery cases, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act cases (Williams v. National Gallery of Art, Philipp v. Federal Republic of Germany, Rubin v. Iran, and DeCsepel v. Hungary), Konowaloff v. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Okinawa Dugong v. Mattis, Navajo Nation v. Dep't of Interior, and Navajo Nation v. Urban Outfitters. Treatment of new legislation includes the Holocaust Era Art Recovery Act, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, and the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act. A new section examines the intersection of human rights and cultural heritage, while expanded sections address the use of civil forfeiture in art recovery cases, museum policies on acquisition of antiquities and the use of proceeds realized from the sale of art works from museum collections, and comparative analysis of market country implementation of the 1970 UNESCO Convention.

Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Law is one of the first legal casebooks to address the rapidly emerging fields of art and cultural heritage law, utilizing an interdisciplinary approach. This book addresses artists¿ rights (freedom of expression, copyright, moral rights and rights in architectural works and historic preservation); the functioning of the art market (dealers and auction houses, warranties of quality and authenticity, transfer of title and recovery of stolen art works, and the role of museums), and finally cultural heritage (the fate of art works and cultural objects in time of war, the international trade in art works and cultural objects, the archaeological and underwater heritage of the United States, and indigenous cultures, focusing on restitution of Native American cultural objects and human remains, and appropriation of indigenous culture). The new edition, available summer 2008, will retain the basic structure of the first edition while updating case law, policies and events. It will include recent materials and developments, such as new cases (Malevich v. City of Amsterdam, resolution of the Barnes dispute, recent deaccessioning disputes, Iran v. Barakat, U.S. v. Ligon), recent restitutions of ancient art works from US museums to Italy and other countries, and new museum policies. There will also be an expansion of treatment of underwater cultural heritage, historic preservation, and archaeological resources.

This volume contains relevant and pressing issues in the law, policy, and the practice of art and cultural heritage protection.

How global contemporary art reanimates the past as a resource for the present, combating modern art's legacy of Eurocentrism. If European modernism was premised on the new—on surpassing the past, often by assigning it to the “traditional” societies of the Global South—global contemporary art reanimates the past as a resource for the present. In this account of what globalization means for contemporary art, David Joselit argues that the creative use of tradition by artists from around the world serves as a means of combatting modern art's legacy of Eurocentrism. Modernism claimed to live in the future and relegated the rest of the world to the past. Global contemporary art shatters this myth by reactivating various forms of heritage—from literati ink painting in China to Aboriginal painting in Australia—in order to propose new and different futures. Joselit analyzes not only how heritage becomes contemporary through the practice of individual artists but also how a cultural infrastructure of museums, biennials, and art fairs worldwide has emerged as a means of generating economic value, attracting capital and tourist dollars. Joselit traces three distinct forms of modernism that developed outside the West, in opposition to Euro-American modernism: postcolonial, socialist realism, and the underground. He argues that these modern genealogies are synchronized with one another and with Western modernism to produce global contemporary art. Joselit discusses curation and what he terms “the curatorial episteme,” which, through its acts of framing or curating, can become a means of recalibrating hierarchies of knowledge—and can contribute to the dual projects of decolonization and deimperialization.

This book studies the relationship between the arts and the economy. By applying economic thinking to arts and culture, it analyses markets for art and cultural goods, highlights specific facets of art auctions and discusses determinants of the economic success of artists. The author also sheds new light on various cultural areas, such as the performing and visual arts, festivals, films, museums and cultural heritage. Lastly, the book discusses cultural policies, the role of the state in financing culture, and the relationship between the arts and happiness.

Pre-Columbian artifacts are among the most popular items on the international antiquities market, yet it is becoming increasingly difficult to monitor these items as public, private, and digital sales proliferate. This timely volume explores past, current, and future policies and trends concerning the sales and illicit movement of artifacts from Mesoamerica to museums and private collections. Informed by the fields of anthropology, economics, law, and criminology, contributors critically analyze practices of research and collecting in Central American countries. They assess the circulation of looted and forged artifacts on the art market and in museums and examine government and institutional policies aimed at fighting trafficking. They also ask if and how scholars can use materials removed from their context to interpret the past. The theft of cultural heritage items from their places of origin is a topic of intense contemporary discussion, and The Market for Mesoamerica updates our knowledge of this issue by presenting undocumented and illicit antiquities within a regional and global context. Through discussion of transparency, accountability, and ethical practice, this volume ultimately considers how antiquities can be protected and studied through effective policy and professional practice. A volume in the series Maya Studies, edited by Diane Z. Chase and Arlen F. Chase