Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Law

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 and images to illustrate the artworks discussed in the legal materials. 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 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 historic, 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 third edition retains the basic structure of the earlier editions while updating case law, policies and events. It includes cutting edge legal developments, such as the new decisions in the Fisk University dispute, Bakalar v. Vavra, and Cassirer v. Spain, United States ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention, restitutions of ancient art works from US museums to Italy and other countries, and application of museum policies. Expanded and updated treatment is given to art merchant practices, functioning of the art market, and the use of civil forfeiture to recover illegally imported cultural objects.