The Library
Below is a list of books and journals that the Center for Art Law compiles in our quest to keep track of the art law publications and relevant scholarship.
If you are working on a new title, or your book is already out, and you would like to have it included in the Repository, please send us information about it (Title, Author/Editor(s), Date of Publication; ISBN, short summary, link to your publisher/distributor).
Filters
Categories
Type
Name of Author
Date of Publication
Search Results
The Weaponisation of Heritage in Armed Conflict
Cite
Edited by Mark Dunkley and Christopher Jasparro, The Weaponisation of Heritage in Armed Conflict, December 2026
There’s a Criminal Touch to Art: How Ulay Stole Hitler’s Favorite Painting and Redefined Performance Art
On December 12, 1976, German conceptual artist Ulay stole Hitler’s favorite painting from the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. It was art theft as conceptual artwork. He hung the painting on the wall of a working-class immigrant family’s home, then phoned the museum to let them know where they could retrieve it. Told from three perspectives, this unique and groundbreaking book tells the complete story of this art theft and explores what made Ulay’s iconic artistic action one of the most famous performance artworks in history. While Ulay passed away in 2020, he recorded his own first-person account of the action in conversation with art historian Noah Charney, allowing readers to engage with a never-before-seen narrative of the theft in Ulay’s own words. The theft as artwork was conceived and undertaken with the help of Ulay’s partner at the time, Marina Abramovic, who is among the most famous living artists in the world. Her account of the action will follow Ulay’s in this book. Finally, Noah Charney will contextualize Ulay and Abramovic’s artistic action within the history of art as well as highlight this fascinating incident’s importance to the history of art theft.
Cite
Noah Charney, There’s a Criminal Touch to Art: How Ulay Stole Hitler’s Favorite Painting and Redefined Performance Art, February 2026
The Man Who Stole the Gods A True Story of War, Obsession, and a Global Art Conspiracy
From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to the gilded halls of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, a tale of stolen treasures and the battle to reclaim a nation’s soul.
Amidst the chaos of Cambodia’s brutal genocide, a new crime wave emerged—one that would sweep across borders and entangle the world’s most prestigious art institutions. Priceless treasures of the ancient Khmer Empire, the civilization that produced Angkor Wat, vanished from sacred temples, looted by smugglers and trafficked into the hands of elite collectors. At the center of it all was a man named Douglas Latchford.
Known later as “Dynamite Doug” for the ruthless methods used to extract statues from temple ruins, Latchford orchestrated one of history’s most audacious cultural heists. From dusty Cambodian villages to the glittering auction houses of London and New York and institutions like the Met, he played a double game—presenting himself as an expert on Khmer art while secretly flooding the market with stolen antiquities.
In The Man Who Stole the Gods, award-winning journalist Matthew Campbell unravels the gripping story of Latchford’s criminal enterprise, and a global conspiracy of greed and collusion—one that involves some of the world’s most powerful museums and collectors.
A masterful blend of true crime, history, and investigative journalism, The Man Who Stole the Gods is the definitive account of one man’s greed, an industry’s complicity, and the fight to expose the truth and restore stolen treasures to their rightful home.
Cite
Matthew Campbell, The Man Who Stole the Gods A True Story of War, Obsession, and a Global Art Conspiracy, June 2026
In and Out of Context: Objects and their itineraries in museums, collections, and storerooms
How do objects shape, and become shaped by the social and cultural words they inhabit?
This volume explores the dynamic lives of objects from prehistory to modernity, as they move through time, space, and systems of value and meaning. Case studies from Greco-Roman antiquity to northern Europe, and the Indus Valley, present diverse archaeological, art-historical, museological, and heritage perspectives into the ever-progressing lives of artefacts, monuments, and museum collections. The authors examine provenance, collections histories, shifting meanings of artefacts in post-colonial settings, and the role of museums in shaping narratives. Framed within the theoretical discourse of object biography, contributions reveal how the entanglements of things are in a constant state of motion, and how contexts of use, circulation, and analysis are socially and politically defined. This is a rich resource for anyone interested in the complex lives of things and the interplay between people, artefacts, and the institutions that house and study them.
Cite
Kleopatra Kathariou, Christina Marini, Cécile Colonna and Susanna Sarti, In and Out of Context: Objects and their itineraries in museums, collections, and storerooms, June 2026
Provenance Research 2
This issue is the second of two volumes addressing the challenges faced by museums today in establishing the provenance of their collections. Many objects, collections and ancestral remains found in museums today lack a clear or full provenance: conditions that reflect the historical conditions under which they were assembled.
Reflecting on both the practical and ethical dimensions of provenance research, contributors to this issue examine the complex power dynamics shaping it. They question who has the authority to undertake such work, how provenance research itself is defined, and whose interests and perspectives it ultimately serves. Addressing these questions may require reframing how provenance is conceptualised and understood, opening space for new perspectives, concepts and methods for thinking about and practising provenance research.
To obtain a hard copy, or if you are having trouble accessing the online version, please contact publications@icom.museum
Cite
ICOM, Provenance Research 2, June 2026
Books Reviews
Book Review: “Lust on Trial: Censorship and the Rise of American Obscenity in the Age of…
Book Review: “All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art” (2024)
Book Review: Caveat Emptor: The Secret Life of an American Art Forger (2012) by Ken Perenyi
Book Review: “Art & Crime” (2022) by Stefan Koldenhoff & Tobias Timm, eng. ed.
Book Review: “Museum Administration: Law and Practice” by Walter Lehmann (2022)
Book Review: “Posthumous Art, Law and the Art Market,” Sharon Hecker and Peter J. Karol, eds.…
Book Review: The Art Collecting Legal Handbook, Bruno W. Boesch And Massimo Sterpi, eds. (3rd ed.,…
Book Review: “Lost Art: The Art Loss Register Casebook Vol I” (2021) by Anja Shortland
Book Review: “The Whole Picture: The Colonial Story of the Art in Our Museums & Why…
Art Law Journals
Book Review: “Females in the Frame: Women, Art, and Crime” (2019) by Penelope Jackson
Book Review: “A Philosophy Guide to Street Art and the Law” (2018)
Book Review: “Hitler’s Last Hostages” (2019)
Book Review: “Art and Modern Copyright” (2018)
Book Review: “Females in the Frame: Women, Art, and Crime” (2019)
Book Review: “Art Law and the Business of Art” (2019)
Book Review: “Artist, Authorship & Legacy: A Reader” (2018)
Book Review: “The Bouvier Affair: A True Story” (2019)
Book Review: Joan Kee, “Models of Integrity” (2019)
Book Review: “A Tragic Fate: Law and Ethics in the Battle over Nazi-Looted Art”(2017)
Book Review: “Art Law: A Concise Guide for Artists, Curators, and Art Educators”(2016)
Book Review: “Art and Business: Transactions in Art & Cultural Property” (2016)
Book Review: “Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors from Antiquity to the Present” (2016)
Book Review: “Fair and just solutions?” (2015)
Book Review: “Visual Arts and the Law: A Handbook for Professionals” (2013)
Book Review: Elizabeth T. Russell’s “Arts Law Conversations”
All Things Come in Threes: Hope reviews Three Recent Publications on Art Forgery
Pitching an idea to e-Textbook Publishers: Trademarks through NY Restaurants
Art Theft – A Sexy Crime?
