Our Mission
Cultural Heritage & Art
The Centre pursues the non-profit purpose of promoting advice, research and teaching on the legal issues involved in the world of art. These legal issues include the protection of cultural property at all levels of the legal structure including the domestic, Indian law and both international as well as transnational legal concerns, the protection of international loans between museums, the restitution of works of art stolen in the colonial era, archaeological finds and cultural assets that were taken out of the country, trade fair and auction law, tax, foundation and insurance law, as well as export and criminal law in connection with the (international) trade of works of art and also copyright, ancillary copyrights, media law.
Conferences & Teaching
In addition to a wide range of lectures, seminars, and symposia, the Centre organizes the Annual Conference on Art and Law once a year in cooperation with other institutions. In response to today's growing need to almost always engage with cross-border issues, there is a need for an international network: collaboration with the German Institute of Art and Law IFKUR and with renowned colleagues all over the world. In addition to the conferences, the Council offers and promotes individual lectures, webinars and meetings on focus issues.
Advisory & Network
Advice and support in art and cultural property law are a major component of our work. This also includes the formation of a network of experts from all fields; from the legal to the museum sector, from the art market and galleries and to various groups and individual artists. In addition to these areas, there is material research, provenance research and close cooperation with experts and foundations.
Art & Law News
A Roman Holiday for Gandhara: The Irony of Italy Guarding Afghanistan’s Buddhist Past
In the complex, often heartbreaking landscape of cultural heritage law, every now and then a story emerges that’s simply too poignant to ignore. Case in point: an exhibition in New Delhi, featuring Afghan Buddhist and other Eurasian artifacts, organized by an Italian museum. This is not mere cultural exchange; it’s a powerful, circular narrative of protection, destruction, and shared history. The pieces, tracing the long arc of cultural exchange from ancient India to the Mediterranean,…
Who Wrote That Prompt? The US Supreme Court’s AI Copyright Conundrum
The future of the creative economy—and possibly human self-worth—now rests on a question of legal semantics: Can a machine be an “author”? Computer scientist Stephen Thaler has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the denial of copyright protection for an image titled “A Recent Entrance to Paradise,” a work his AI system, DABUS (Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience), created autonomously. Thaler isn’t claiming he authored it; he explicitly listed the AI as the author. This…
When Palm-Leaf Scrolls Unite Temple, Museum, and Academia
In Kerala, a fascinating cultural alliance has taken root. The Shevadhi Museum, in collaboration with Alliance University, will study ancient palm-leaf manuscripts held at the centuries-old Kumaranalloor Devi Temple. These manuscripts, often preserved in hidden temple treasuries, carry liturgical texts, family histories, almanacs, ritual instructions and more. The project is significant not only for its content but for who is involved: a religious institution, a museum, and academic researchers working together. This cooperation underscores how…