Art & Law Workshop: Fiduciary Duties of Trustees of Estates
November 26, 2024
About the Event
Workshop with attorney Richard Lehun on the complex world of fiduciary duties involved with estates.
This workshop focused on duties of trustees in managing an artist’s estate, providing a comprehensive overview of key concepts and responsibilities. It explored the roles of executors and trustees and their legal obligations. The session covered topics such as the creation and administration of trusts, artist-endowed foundations, and the implications of having or not having a will. Notable case studies, including the Matter of Rothko, illustrated the potential legal pitfalls in estate management. Additionally, the workshop provided a practical checklist for estate planning, including how to create an inventory, choose a legal structure, and select appropriate fiduciaries.
About the Speaker
Richard Lehun is a Founding member of Stropheus, a New York-based legal and business collective for the arts. He is responsible for transactions involving fiduciary duties and conflicts of interest, particularly those relating to artist-gallery relations, artist commissions, art advising, consignor-auction house relations, gallery, museum, auction house, and non-profit ethics. He also works in the area of arts-related intellectual property issues, including copyright and trademark. Richard Lehun completed his JD and then moved directly to the SJD program at McGill University. He gathered practical legal experience with Léger Robic Richard, Montréal’s respected intellectual property practitioner. While a teaching fellow at McGill’s law faculty, Richard Lehun was cross-appointed as a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School.
Richard Lehun studied under Jürgen Habermas at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main on a DAAD Scholarship and completed his Magister Artium on Adorno’s Negative Dialectics and Aesthetic Theory. During his studies in Frankfurt, he was admitted to the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie (dffb) for studies in film and television directing. His self-financed graduating film, Fetisch, was awarded the German National Film Prize (Bundesfilmpreis).
He also teaches art law and lectures at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Handouts and Reading Material
Read the handouts HERE.
Recording of the Lecture
