"Term of Art: August"

What's New in Art Law

• [Repatriation] MFA Boston Returns Two Benin Artifacts

  The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has returned two looted Benin artifacts—a bronze relief plaque and a terracotta head—to Nigeria as part of its decision to close its Benin gallery and in response to growing global efforts to repatriate stolen cultural property. Originally taken during the 1897 British raid on the Kingdom of Benin and later owned by collector Robert Lehman, the works were formally handed over in a ceremony at Nigeria House in New York. They will be transferred to Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments and ultimately delivered to His Royal Majesty Omo N’Oba Ewuare II in present-day Nigeria. Read more here. [EBK]

• [Repatriation] Politicizing the Parthenon Marbles: An Ongoing Saga

  Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss and other prominent figures signed a letter addressed to the trustees of the British Museum and the UK government—organized by the right-wing group Great British PAC—condemning what they describe as a “politically orchestrated” and secretive campaign to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. The letter criticizes the Parthenon Project, threatens potential legal action, and argues that the marbles are British property acquired legally. This is the latest development in the ongoing international dispute over the rightful home of the sculptures, which have been housed in the British Museum since 1817. Read more here. [EBK]

   

• [Art Firm Cross-Complaint] Guggenheim v. Asher, Asher v. Guggenheim

  After nearly four decades as partners at their elite art advisory firm, Guggenheim Asher Associates, Barbara Guggenheim and Abigail Asher are now embroiled in a bitter legal battle filled with explosive allegations. Guggenheim accuses Asher of misappropriating over $20.5 million and secretly launching a competing firm, while Asher alleges years of financial misconduct, abuse, and unethical behavior by Guggenheim that destroyed their firm’s reputation. Each denies the other’s claims, and their dueling lawsuits expose the inner turmoil of a once-revered business at a time of growing instability in the art market. The fallout marks a dramatic and public unraveling of one of the art world’s most high-profile partnerships, unfolding amid a struggling market and a wave of gallery closures and advisory firm implosions. Read more here. [EBK]

• [Loan Agreement] Bayeux Tapestry to be displayed at the British Museum in landmark loan agreement

  The Bayeux Tapestry will return to the UK for the first time in nearly a millennium as part of a cultural exchange with France. The agreement was finalized and signed at the British Museum on July 9, 2025, by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. This landmark deal follows previous failed attempts to secure a loan and reflects strengthening post-Brexit UK–French relations. Read more here. [ADE]

   

• [Cultural Heritage] ALIPH allocates over $16 million to preserve cultural heritage affected by climate change and armed conflict

  ALIPH has announced more than $16 million in grants to protect cultural heritage. Of this, over $9 million will go toward climate-related projects, primarily in Africa. Another $5 million will support recovery from the war in Syria, while emergency funds have also been dispatched to Gaza and Ukraine. Read more here. [ADE]

• [Museum issues] University of Pennsylvania Museum Workers Authorize Strike

  In early July, the members of the Penn Museum Workers United Local 397 union, which represents staffers at the University of Pennsylvania campus museum, unanimously voted to authorize a strike after their contract expired in June. While a strike has not yet been called, the group is ready to stop working if negotiations with the university do not make progress. Read more here.

   

• [Trump Arts Cuts] Trump wants to cut funding for the Institute of American Indian Arts

  Inspector Jason Rybak of the Thunder Bay Police Service uncovered three major forgery networks in Ontario producing counterfeit artworks attributed to Indigenous artist Norval Morrisseau. A key development came when James White, a central figure in the operation, pleaded guilty to creating forged documents and possessing and trafficking forged artworks. While six additional fraud charges against him were dropped, the same eight charges remain pending against his alleged accomplices. Read more here. [ADE]

• [Funding Cuts] Trump wants to cut funding for the Institute of American Indian Arts

  If Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal is passed, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) could lose all of its federal funding. The budget proposal outlines complete elimination of funds for the IAIA. The IAIA is the only four-year school for contemporary Indigenous Arts, and it has received around $13 million in federal funds in the last two years. The nearly 900 enrolled students at the school, a majority of whom come from rural reservations, may see their place of education shuttered, since 75% of expenses are paid for by federal dollars. Read more here. [AD]

   

• [Restitution] Spain Publishes a List of Art Plundered by the Franco Regime

  The Spanish Culture Ministry has published a list of more than 5,000 items (including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and jewellery) that were seized during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. The goal is to help heirs reclaim their family property and is part of a larger effort to bring repatriation, justice, and dignity to the victims of these periods. Read more here. [JS]

   

• [Cultural Heritage] EU Steps Up to Protect Ukrainian Cultural Heritage through the “Team Europe” Initiative

  The ongoing war in Ukraine has resulted in the deliberate damage and destruction of over 500 cultural sites, including 150 religious landmarks, according to UNESCO and EU officials. At the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome on July 10 2025, the EU pledged an additional €2 million in cultural support this year, raising its total contribution to €48 million since 2022. The EU launched a “Team Europe” initiative to preserve Ukrainian heritage, as protecting culture is a core part of European identity and democracy. Read more here. [VG]

• [Museum News] Tate Modern launches ambitious £150M Endowment

  To celebrate its 25th anniversary, the London Museum hosted a gala that raised over £1 million and officially launched the Tate Future Fund, a project with £43 million already secured from philanthropists and artists. The fund aims to safeguard Tate’s global leadership in modern art by providing sustainable support for exhibitions and research. The project is considered a generational investment that will preserve the Museum’s ability to educate and inspire. Read more here. [VG]

• [Art Market & Auctions] Philips Auction House takes Collector to Court over Unpaid $14.5M Guarantee

  The recent lawsuit filed by the Auction house against collector David Mimran highlights the legal risks of Third-Party Guarantees (TPG). The collector, who acted as a backer and guarantor, defaulted on his $14.5M contractual obligation to purchase a 1948 Jackson Pollock painting last November. Philips is seeking a summary judgment in the New York Supreme Court for the full amount, plus interest and legal fees. Read more here. [VG]

• [Cultural Heritage] Ireland’s Stolen Treasures in British Museums

  Belfast rapper Kneecap ignited debate by labeling artefacts ‘Stolen from Ireland’ at the British Museum, spotlighting over 1,297 contested Irish relics held there. Academics argue these items, like St. Cuileáin’s bell shrine, were unethically acquired under colonial rule despite legal paperwork, a distinction highlighted by Prof. Laura McAtackney. While some UK museums could return items, the British Museum is blocked by law, offering only loans or replicas. Critics add these artefacts often lack crucial historical context in UK displays. Read more here. [JG]

   

• [Cultural Heritage] Nazi-Looted Lovers Finally Returned Home after 80 Years

  A 2,000-year-old erotic mosaic stolen from Pompeii by a Nazi captain during WWII has been returned to Italy. The artwork was voluntarily surrendered by the German family who inherited it. After authentication by Italian authorities, it was repatriated through diplomatic channels. Pompeii’s director hailed the return as ‘healing a wound.’ In 2020, a tourist returned stolen mosaic tiles, blaming the ‘Pompeii Curse’ for bad luck. Read more here. [JG]

   

• [Copyright] Damien Hirst Accused of Plagiarism for His Best Work

  English artist and collector Damien Hirst has been accused of plagiarizing a former classmate, Hamad Butt. Butt’s 1990 degree show featured live flies in a vitrine. In contrast, Hirst’s breakthrough work, A Thousand Years, is a glass case containing live flies feeding on a cow’s head. Hirst continued to produce bio-art, a genre that brought him worldwide acclaim. This is not his first plagiarism allegation. In 2000, he paid an undisclosed sum to settle a potential copyright infringement suit. In 2010, Hirst was accused of producing 15 works “inspired by others.” Read more here. [JS]

• [Repatriation] No One Is Safe: Common Museum Practice Leaves Finnish Museum with Looted Benin Treasure

  Following the highly publicized 2021 restitution of Benin artefacts by the Musée Quai Branly, a team of investigators associated with Finland’s National Museum (Kansallismuseo) decided to re-evaluate the provenance of a Beninese Kataklè stool from its collection. The investigation showed that the Katalkè came to Finland as a result of a common museum practice: for two institutions to exchange objects in order to fill gaps in their respective collections. However, the resulting trade of indigenous Finnish (Sámi) objects for global treasures left the Kansallismuseo in possession of a looted object, which the Finnish museum promptly restituted upon proper confirmation. What this saga illustrates is that even museums from nations that did not participate in colonization can come to possess looted objects, and must critically assess their previous exchanges with museums of nations who did participate in that extractive process. Read the report by Radio France Internationale here. [AS]

• [Repatriation] Peruvian Ministry of Culture Announces Voluntary Repatriation of 132 Cultural Heritage objects

  In Summer 2025, the Ministry of Culture of Peru announced the successful reception of 132 repatriated objects, returned from 4 different nations. The repatriated objects were primarily archeological takings of objects made by Peru’s pre-Incan civilizations, with the notable exception of skeletal remains repatriated by the United States. Per the Ministry of Culture Report, all returns by the four nations–Belgium, Colombia, Switzerland, and the United States–were made voluntarily, either by individual citizens, or national museums. These returns were executed diplomatically in large part due to Peru’s dedicated Dirección de Recuperaciones (Directorate of Recoveries), which manages the retrieval of cultural heritage both domestically and abroad. Read the original report in Spanish here and an English language report here.

   

• [Cultural Heritage] U.S. Withdraws from UNESCO

  According to a recent announcement, the U.S. is to withdraw from UNESCO by the end of 2026, claiming that participation is “not in the national interest.” The withdrawal is a warning sign of the Trump’s administration increasingly authoritarian stance on culture and has sparked fears for the future of cultural protection. Trump’s second-term policies aim to strip arts funding and drastically reshape the arts landscape. Read more here. [JS]

• Scholars Demand ICC Action Against Russia’s Cultural Crimes

  The advocacy group For Ukraine, For Their Freedom and Ours! has filed an official complaint with the International Criminal Court, calling for an end to the plundering of Ukrainian museums. It is an act that is recognised as a war crime under international conventions. Cultural war is a key aspect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, aimed at erasing Ukrainian identity and heritage. Read more here. [JS]

   

• [AML] Lawmakers Propose Crackdown on Art World’s Illicit Finance Loopholes

  U.S. Senator John Fetterman recently introduced the bipartisan Art Market Integrity Act to combat money laundering in the art market. The bill would require dealers, auction houses, and intermediaries to implement anti-money laundering safeguards for high-value transactions, while exempting artists, nonprofits, and small businesses. It aims to close loopholes used by sanctioned entities like Russian oligarchs and terrorist groups, aligning the U.S. with international standards. Though endorsed by law enforcement and watchdogs, experts doubt its passage due to industry resistance. Read the official press release here. [JG]

• Manhattan D.A.’s Office Continues Wave of Antiquities Repatriations from Major Trafficking Cases [Repatriation]

  The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has returned more than 30 antiquities to Spain, Italy, and Hungary, marking the latest chapter in its ongoing campaign against cultural property trafficking. Led by District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) under Assistant D.A. Matthew Bogdanos, the repatriations follow investigations into convicted traffickers including Giacomo Medici, Giovanni Franco Becchina, Robin Symes, Robert Hecht, and Edoardo Almagià. Among the returned items are a 1st-century CE marble head of Alexander the Great as Helios, Visigoth pendants seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a 1675 Jesuit manuscript looted during WWII. Since its creation in 2017, the ATU has been a global leader in recovering stolen cultural heritage, with seizures and returns now a near-constant feature of New York’s art crime enforcement. Read more here.

• Niger Protests Sotheby’s Sale of Rare Martian Meteorite [Auctions; Trafficking; Space Law]

  The government of Niger has launched an investigation into the sale of a 24.7 kg Martian meteorite, NWA 16788, which was auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York last month for $4.3 million. The meteorite, discovered in Niger’s Sahara Desert in 2023, is the largest known piece of Mars found on Earth. While Sotheby’s maintains that all export and sale procedures complied with international and national regulations, Niger has questioned the legality of its removal from the country, raising concerns about possible illicit trafficking. Palaeontologist Paul Sereno, founder of NigerHeritage, has called for the meteorite’s return, citing its significance to Niger’s natural heritage. “International law says you cannot simply take something that is important to the heritage of a country – be it a cultural item, a physical item, a natural item, an extraterrestrial item – out of the country. You know we’ve moved on from colonial times when all this was okay,”  Sereno states. The case has renewed discussion over gaps in national and international laws regulating the trade in meteorites, which often fall outside explicit cultural property protections. Read more here.

• Seven-Year Legal Battle Ends with Return of Roman Bust to Italy [Repatriation]

  A marble bust dating from the first century CE, long believed stolen from an Italian museum, has been repatriated to Italy after a seven-year legal dispute. Known as the “Head of Alexander,” the sculpture was seized in 2018 from Manhattan’s Safani Gallery by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, following a tip from Italian authorities. Court filings trace the bust’s journey from an early 20th-century excavation along Rome’s Via Sacra, to decades of sales through New York, Cairo, and London, before its 2017 purchase by Safani Gallery. Italy claimed ownership under its 1909 cultural heritage law, prompting a series of unsuccessful lawsuits by the gallery against both the Italian government and the DA’s office. The bust was handed over to Italian officials in a ceremony at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on 5 August, alongside 30 other repatriated artifacts. Read more here.