Markets and Rules for Italian Cultural Heritage: From Art to Fashion
February 22, 2023
About this Event
Connections between the United States and Italy and the roots of the New World’s fascination with the home of Renaissance run deep. American museums have purchased ancient objects excavated from the Italian soil, portraits of Italy’s prominent families, and American museum visitors and consumers increasingly admire Italy’s modern art and fashion. As American cultural heritage professionals and lawyers encounter Italian cultural heritage, they also encounter Italy’s extensive body of cultural heritage regulation and the dilemmas it raises.
The Italian government might halt an American museum’s ability to receive loans of cultural properties from Italian collections, even going so far as to prosecute an American curator. Italy’s Ministry of Culture might deem an exported work illegally exported after it leaves the Italian territory. An American company or designer might find themselves at odds with the Italian government as they seek to incorporate an image of an Italian cultural property into their advertisements or creations. How should an American audience of cultural heritage professionals and lawyers understand Italian cultural heritage regulation and the challenges it may bring? What is really within the purview of Italian cultural heritage law and how does that compare to cultural heritage as we define it in the United States?
Objectives
In this webinar Dr. Felicia Caponigri and Dr. Anna Pirri Valentini, the co-directors of the academic research network Cultural Heritage Law Across the Atlantic, explained facets of Italian cultural heritage regulation comparatively for an American audience. The speakers discussed headline-grabbing cases, decoding specific articles of Italy’s complex statutory cultural heritage legal framework, and highlighting what is within and outside of the definition of cultural property in Italy. In the process, they highlighted emerging rules for contemporary areas of Italian cultural heritage with which an American audience is increasingly interacting, including 20th century Italian art and fashion. From this lecture, viewers learned the building blocks of Italian cultural heritage law, while also leaving with key takeaways about the circulation of artworks from Italy to the United States, the difference between image rights in cultural properties and copyright, and what legal rules may be most relevant as Americans purchase 21st century Italian art and fashion.
About the Speakers:
Felicia Caponigri, J.D., Ph.D. | Bar admissions: Indiana
Felicia is a comparative cultural heritage, art, and fashion law scholar and the Founder of Fashion by Felicia, LLC. As part of her academic activities and projects, Dr. Caponigri collaborates with brands and cultural institutions on design and heritage initiatives. Her work has been published in the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, AEDON, The Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, The Notre Dame Journal of International and Comparative Law, the Notre Dame Law Review Online, and the Rivista Trimestrale di Diritto Pubblico. She has presented her work at the Luxury Law Summit in London, the AALS Annual Conference, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and at the Università degli Studi di Firenze in Italy. Dr. Caponigri co-organizes the Summer School “Cultural Heritage Law Across the Atlantic” at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, where she is also a Guest Scholar. Her academic engagements have spanned the globe, occurring in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Hong Kong, Chile, Poland and Italy. Dr. Caponigri is also a member of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S) and currently serves as Co-Director of Chapter Development for the Society.
A member of the Indiana bar, Dr. Caponigri received her legal degree, magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School and her B.A., cum laude, in Art History from The University of Notre Dame. She also studied at the American University of Paris in France and at the Università Bocconi in Milan, Italy. She previously taught Fashion Law and Art & Cultural Heritage Law at Notre Dame Law School, and formerly managed the Law School’s Program on Intellectual Property Law and directed its International & Graduate Programs.
Anna Pirri Valentini | Postdoctoral researcher at LUISS Guido Carli, Rome
Dr. Anna Pirri Valentini, master’s degree in law with honors (La Sapienza University, 2015), Ph.D. in Analysis and Management of Cultural Heritage (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, 2020), is Senior Post-Doc Research Fellow at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome.
She is adjunct professor of Art Market Legislation at NABA-Nuova Accademia Belle Arti (Milan), of Museum: ethics and the law at the Istituto Lorenzo de Medici. The Italian International Institute (Florence), and of Heritage, Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development Policies at Luiss Guido Carli University.
She has been visiting research scholar at the Institut des Sciences Sociales du Politique -École normale supérieure Paris Saclay- (Paris) and at the LSE- London School of Economics and Political Science (London).
Dr. Pirri Valentini also advises public and private institutions on cultural heritage law and policy and on art law. The most stable collaboration is with the Fondazione Scuola del Patrimonio (a foundation under the authority of the Italian Ministry of Culture), with which she works on the implementation of a European project, CHARTER – the European Cultural Heritage Skills Alliance.
Her main areas of interest include cultural heritage legislation and art law, in a comparative perspective. More specifically, she focused her analysis on the legal protection of contemporary art, artists’ contracts and archives, art export controls, management and regulation of museums, and the administrative bodies in charge of protecting and valorising cultural heritage. She published articles on cultural heritage legislation and art law in Italian and international journals (Rivista Trimestrale di Diritto Pubblico; Giornale di Diritto Amministrativo; AEDON; International Journal of Constitutional Law), and in collective books. Her research has been presented in national and international conferences (Italy, France, England, Hong Kong, Chile, Poland).
Dr. Pirri Valentini is a member of IRPA (Istituto di Ricerca sulla Pubblica Amministrazione); part of the ICON-S (The International Society of Public Law) Governance; and Secretary General of ICON-S Italia (The Italian chapter of ICON-S).
Handouts and Reading Material
Read the handouts HERE.
Recording of the Lecture
Watch the recording HERE.
