Panel Discussion: International Perspectives on Street Art (CLE)
February 6, 2019
About the Event:
Center for Art Law organized a panel at Fordham Law School entitled “International Perspectives on Street Art”, co-sponsored by the Fordham Art Law Society, and the Entertainment, Arts & Sports Section of the New York State Bar Association. The co-moderators Carol Steinberg (attorney at the Law Office of Carol J. Steinberg), and Louise Carron (Center for Art Law’s Executive Director), led panelists – William L. Charron (Partner at Pryor Cashman), Diego Figueroa-Rodriguez (Of Counsel at DLA Piper), Marie-Cecile Flageul (Co-Founder of 5Pointz Creates and Curator of MoSA), and Renee Vara (Founder and Director of VARA ART) – in a lively cross-continent discussion of the legal status of street art, past challenges, and promising developments for the future.
Read the Event Review HERE
Speakers:
William L. Charron, Partner, Pryor Cashman
William Charron is a litigator who co-chairs Pryor Cashman’s Art Law practice. He represents institutional and individual clients in a wide range of art authenticity, title and other matters. Bill also has extensive experience handling intellectual property litigation involving copyright, trademark, right of publicity, and defamation claims. He is a frequent speaker and writer on issues impacting
the art world, such as authenticity disputes, World War II restitution cases, artist royalty rights, and procedural law issues.
Working in conjunction with the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI) and the Authentication in Art (AiA) organization (where Bill serves as an Advisory Board member), he conceived of and formed a working group to design the newly-launched “Court of Arbitration for Art” (where he is now a board member), administered through NAI. Bill is also a founding board member of the Professional Advisors to the International Art Market (PAIAM) in New York.
Diego Figueroa-Rodriguez, Of Counsel, DLA Piper
Diego R. Figueroa-Rodríguez’s main practice focuses on representing issuers and underwriters in public finance transactions encompassing multiple types of financing structures. Principally due to his involvement in the art world as a philanthropist, collector and board member at various cultural
institutions, Diego’s practice also includes advising artists, museums, galleries, sovereign countries, private foundations, collectors, auction houses and non-profit art organizations on matters involving a wide range of areas including business, intellectual property, finance, litigation, tax and real estate.
Diego currently serves as a member of the governing boards of the Puerto Rico Museum of Art, the Museum Trustee Association, the Luis Muñoz Marín Foundation and in various advisory committees. Diego is the Vice-Chair of the Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee of the American Bar Association and is an active member of the Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee of the International Bar Association. He has served as panelist on art law events around the world; most recently being a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Political Science in the Department of European Law of Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary on the subject of Intellectual Property Law in the United States as applied to the Visual Arts, particularly to Street Art. Diego is the author of the United States – Florida Chapter of The Art Collecting Legal Handbook, an international treatise on art collecting published by Thomson Reuters.
Diego obtained a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a LL.M. on Real Property Development from the University of Miami School of Law, a Certificate on Chinese Law from the School of Law at Renmin University of China in Beijing and has completed courses on international, cultural heritage and art law at the University of Siena Facolta di Giurisprudenza in Italy and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art. He is admitted to the practice of law in New York and Florida.
Marie-Cécile Flageul, Co-founder at 5Pointz Creates & Curator at MoSA
Marie Cecile Flageul was born and raised in Brittany France, a few miles off the Manche. Her first trip to New York City at the age of sixteen sparked her love story with the city that never sleeps. Following her initial stay in the Lower East Side, she returned to North America and extensively traveled throughout it, exploring more states than most, and enjoying every experience. Her first love and passion was writing with her goal being to write and move to New York City. After completing her Studies at La Sorbonne,
she moved to New York and started her career working for a prestigious incentive house and becoming partner in 2003. After 15 years in event planning and over 1,000 events completed, she felt it was time for her to start her own signature firm rebranded this year as makeithappen.live.
Marie Cecile Flageul has been recognized as the trendsetter in the industry. Often copied, she takes it as a compliment and as an incentive to always look for the next big idea. She has applied all her production and curatorial skills to 5 Pointz and now 5 Pointz creates. Named and recognized as an activist and true advocate for public art, she was invited to join the board of HDC. In 2015, she was given the “art and activism” award by the Gold Coast Art Center. Her curatorial debut was the highly acclaimed “whitewash Show” in February 2014, and she has not stopped since. Her passion for the culture is infectious and her dedication relentless.
Renée Vara, Founder/Director, VARA ART
Renée Vara is the Founder and CEO of VARA ART with over 25 years of art market and advisory experience specializing in 20th century, contemporary and emerging art and design. She is also an award winning Certified USPAP Appraiser tested in 4 areas of fine art specialization. She currently serves on the Advisory Council and was a two term Board Member for the Appraiser’s Association of America. She regularly lectures and has published based on her expertise for more than 50
organizations and institutions. She has curated more than 40 international emerging art shows at fairs and venues, includingArt Basel Miami and Istanbul Biennale. Renée has served as an art legal expert for significant cases, including the landmark VARA litigation, 5Pointz v. G&M Realty L.P.
She is an award winning faculty at NYU for Art Market Studies, Art Business, Collection Management, and Art History for over a decade, and served as an Appointed Lecturer at the Guggenheim (NY) and Sotheby’s Institute. She has been cited in more than 40 major media outlets including The Art Newspaper, Forbes, ARTnews, The New York Times, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal. Renée’s decade of experience as the National Fine Arts Specialist at Chubb Insurance brings a balanced approach to her clientele of collectors, corporations, institutions, and artists. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in art history.
