Interview with Apsara Iyer on Getting into the Art Law Space

March 18, 2024

By Hannah Gadway

About Apsara Iyer:

Apsara Iyer is a student of Harvard Law School’s Class of 2024 with a rich background in cultural heritage and art crime. After studying at both Yale University and Oxford University, Iyer began working in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU).

In 2021, as a Chayes International Public Service Fellow, she co-wrote a chapter in a casebook on cultural heritage and law. Iyer recently served as the 137th President of the Harvard Law Review, the world’s most widely circulated legal journal. She also serves on the Board of Advisors for the Peabody Institute of Archaeology in Andover, Massachusetts.

Apsara Iyer has helped repatriate over 1,100 stolen works of art to 15 countries.^[1] She has worked on archaeological digs and with international organizations. Yet, Iyer didn’t always plan to become involved in the world of art law and cultural heritage.

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The Interview:

Q: How did you learn about the art law space, and what inspired you to eventually work in it?

I had a meandering journey in many ways. I was a student of archaeology over a decade ago. From my first excavation in Peru, I was interested not only by the science of archaeology but also by the ways communities interacted with cultural heritage in and around archaeological sites.

Over the course of my undergraduate studies, this interest led me to pursue a series of field research projects in Colombia, India, Peru, and Turkey. From these projects, I became convinced I needed to go into academia to study cultural heritage. That’s what led me to pursue a master’s degree [in economics at Oxford University] and I was looking into studying economics, getting a PhD, and staying in academia. But all the while I was mulling over the PhD, I couldn’t shake off a really formative experience I’d had during my fieldwork. Back in 2013, while I was researching the trafficking of Indian artifacts, I had traveled outside of Udaipur to a temple that had experienced a theft of several mother goddess statues. A witness who remembered the statues had asked me when the “matas” [mothers] would be coming home. I didn’t have an answer at the time – and I realized my research wouldn’t provide an answer to that question either. This sense led me to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit.

Each day at the Unit, I found that I was directly working on cases that restored pieces of cultural heritage lost to crime to their lawful owners, be they individual collectors or even countries. Part of what made the work so unique was that the team was formed of individuals with varied backgrounds, from curatorial work to conservation to security studies, and my own background in economics. The team also didn’t work in silos but instead put everyone together, lawyers, analysts, and federal agents who could all contribute their respective expertise.

The daily work of the Unit was intrinsically linked with law — using legal tools and interpreting legal questions — and this experience led me to apply to law school.

Q: How has attending law school changed your perspective on art law?

I think I’ve learned how many aspects of law touch on the very interdisciplinary topic of “art law.” While Harvard Law School (HLS) doesn’t have classes solely focused on art law, I’ve realized many classes that I’ve taken — property, torts, contracts — all have elements that intersect with art law.

Q: What led you to join the Harvard Law Review?

In many ways, my research on communities and culture brought me to a space filled with intellectually curious law students, the Law Review. I had also taken a year off from HLS to return to the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, from 2021-22, so the Law Review was also an important part of my feeling more connected to the law school community more generally.

Q: Who do you see as the current largest problem for the art law space?

Art law is a new and evolving field, and while there’s been growing attention on provenance and due diligence, the field is very much still changing. As a student, I’ve seen that much of the discourse around art law has changed over the last four years. An ongoing challenge, however, does seem to be awareness and attention. Generally, it seems like provenance is the last thing one checks, while the first thing to check is the authenticity or rarity of the object.

Being at HLS, I’ve appreciated the Harvard Art Museum’s educational approach to “reframe” objects in their collection as a means of raising awareness. Through the “reframe” initiative, the Harvard Art Museum has added additional history and perspective to labels for different objects in their collection. It’s exciting to see academic institutions creating programs where you can think about collecting and collecting practices.”

Q: What does it actually look like for individuals to work on getting art back to its lawful owner?

It takes a lot of passion and persistence. Persistence is really key. It’s not a nine-to-five job — it’s dealing with people across time zones, disciplines, and requires an attitude to take on any challenge at any moment. It also means thinking creatively about pursuing investigative leads — when was a type of film first manufactured? What typewriter was a document written on, and when did that typewriter first come into existence? Is a stamp on a document consistent with the date a document was allegedly created? Some of my most rewarding moments have come through a combination of persistence, hard work, and unexpected twists and turns.

Q: Do you have any advice for young professionals or students currently trying to break into the art law space?

It’s important to remember the many many opportunities that may exist, even though it doesn’t always seem that way. I remember how difficult it felt to begin trying to think about a career in art law. I initially felt I had little guidance over where I should be looking especially given my background in economics. This feeling is part of why I care about giving back to those who might be interested in exploring the field. My main takeaway is that there are so many spaces where the intersection of art and law unfold: research centers, nonprofits, think tanks, government agencies and offices, museums, and more. Depending on what you’re interested in, there’s a way to find teams that could resonate with the work you are doing.

Being creative in how you approach the classes you’re in also helps. Depending on one’s studies, you could develop your own projects or research papers related to art law. As I mentioned about my time at HLS, I found different courses, though not specifically about “art law,” lent themselves to research related to cultural heritage. At Yale, I used a capstone project in my year-long “Grand Strategy” course to think about the intersection of cultural heritage and diplomacy.

Q: Where do you think that you will be going next?

I think my time in law school has allowed me to realize how translatable the foundational tools involving legal research and analysis are to different disciplines. While I don’t have a definitive plan for my career, I feel certain that cultural heritage and art law will hopefully be a part of it.

About the Author:

Hannah Gadway (Center for Art Law Intern Spring 2024) is a junior at Harvard College studying History and Literature. Hannah has helped generate interest in art on Harvard’s campus by working as a Student Guide at the Harvard Art Museums and the Co-President of the Harvard Undergraduate Art History Society. Outside of art-related ventures, Hannah is the Co-President of the Harvard Undergraduate Law Review and an Arts Executive for The Harvard Crimson.

Additional Source:

1. Nate Raymond, Harvard Law Review picks antiquities theft sleuth as new president, Reuters.com (January 31, 2023), available at https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/harvard-law-review-picks-antiquities-theft-sleuth-new-president-2023-01-31/. ↑