For as long as there has been an art market, fakes and forgeries have been sold, infecting the minds of consumers and critics with questions and doubts. Inspired by a recent rash of fake old master drawings that have appeared on the market, curator John Marciari looks in this lecture at some of the techniques used by forgers from the Renaissance to the present, and at some of methods (and coincidences) that have been used to uncover those deceptions. While expressing the need for connoisseurial expertise in navigating the field, he also reflects on the ways in which forgeries disrupt not only the market but also the scholarship on master drawings.

John Marciari is the Charles W. Engelhard Curator, Head of the Department of Drawings and Prints, and Curatorial Chair at the Morgan Library & Museum. His recent publications include the exhibition catalogues Guercino: Virtuoso Draftsman and Drawing in Tintoretto’s Venice as well as essays, entries, and reviews in a range of exhibition catalogues and scholarly journals. His monograph, Sublime Ideas: Drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, will be published in March 2023 to accompany an exhibition of Piranesi’s drawings at the Morgan.

*The program will be presented onsite at the James B. Duke House and live-streamed to those who join us by Zoom. Zoom details will be available upon registration for virtual attendees. All in-person attendees must be in compliance with NYU's COVID-19 vaccination requirements (fully vaccinated and boosted, once eligible and by NYU's deadline) and be prepared to present proof of compliance. Please review the University's COVID guidelines in advance of your visit. 
 
Register here in-person: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9NiGEyaCxrwROVvRNEuMgzKpiBULhEVXEFYwQLC-tQl1cUQ/viewform

Register virtually: https://nyu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wZ3Hf9jsR22VylF-sYZq0w

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, however, 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?

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, explain facets of Italian cultural heritage regulation comparatively for an American audience. The speakers will spotlight 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 will also highlight emerging rules for contemporary areas of Italian cultural heritage with which an American audience is increasingly interacting, including 20th century Italian art and fashion. Attendees will learn 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.

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Culture in Crisis Programme, in partnership with the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester are pleased to announce an international conference scheduled for 28th February 2023, exploring the past and present risks of military conflict to heritage.

‘Heritage at War: Plan and Prepare’ will bring together voices from Europe, the US, Africa, and Asia to explore how lessons learned from past experiences of conflict can inform our approaches to the safeguarding of cultural heritage today. We will discuss how the heritage sector, the military and other stakeholders collaborate to protect cultural heritage under attack, navigating the specific risks of direct military conflict on the ground.

In the first of two sessions, ‘Learning from the Past’ will explore case studies from previous conflicts which highlight interdisciplinary efforts to protect heritage, drawing guidance from these experiences and comparable strategies for the present.

The second conference session; ‘Preparing for the Present’, will invite speakers to share their views on how the heritage sector can successfully work to protect heritage from the risks of direct ground attack today; from documentation and databasing, to salvage planning and evacuation.
This one-day, in-person event will be hosted by the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London. The conference will be free to attend and simultaneously streamed to online audiences around the world.

The conference is aimed at those working in the Heritage Sector, with specific relevance to those engaged in Cultural Property Protection and including those working in related interdisciplinary fields.

This conference is generously supported by the University of Leicester’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Award.

Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hyb8ovTvSS2JAO6HpNFgvg?dm_i=7H4P,23IF,13NRTP,6V34,1