Moral rights give artists the ability to protect both their authorship and the integrity of their work. They determine whether an artist can be credited properly, and whether their work can be altered, destroyed, or presented in ways that might harm their reputation. While European law provides broad and longstanding protections, the U.S. framework, largely through the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), is much more limited and has been defined case by case.
Christopher Robinson is an attorney and former art dealer who brings valuable insight from both the art market and the courtroom. Robinson served as co-counsel in the 5Pointz case, a landmark decision that brought significant attention to moral rights in the United States. In this workshop Robinson draws on that case and other examples, to discuss how moral rights function in practice, the limitations of VARA, and the impact of these protections on artists today.
About the Speaker
Christoper Robinson | Of Counsel, Rottenberg Lipman Rich
Chris practices art law and intellectual property law, in addition to serving clients requiring general commercial litigation. A former art dealer, he brings a practical knowledge of the art world to his practice of art law. His clients for both litigation and transactional matters include dealers, artists, art advisors, museums, auction houses, appraisers, art foundations, collectors, restorers, developers and publishers. He is outside legal counsel to the Private Art Dealers Association and the New Art Dealers Alliance, and he has spoken widely on art issues, in particular on stolen art, consignment fraud, forgeries, copyright and moral rights, public art, dealer transactions, and artists’ rights. Chris also has extensive experience in copyright licensing and litigation, and gray-market goods enforcement and litigation. His practice includes trademark, unfair competition and false advertising, as well as libel defense and the First Amendment. He also represents clients with respect to privacy law and compliance with sanctions regulations promulgated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Chris earned his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law where he was Editor in Chief of Law Review. He pursued post-graduate work in Art History at the Courtauld Institute, London and has a B.A. and M.A. from Oriel College, Oxford University.
