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
From Classroom to Curator: Why Goa’s College Museum is the Antidote to History Boredom
Let’s be honest: history often gets a bad rap. It’s seen as dusty, sequestered, and something that happened exclusively to people who wore powdered wigs. But in the vibrant coastal state of Goa, a group of college students and their professor, Rohit Phalgaonkar, are proving that history isn’t dead; it’s just scattered in three pieces at the bottom of a temple tank, waiting for a passionate student to fish it out. At the Sant Sohirobanath…
MF Husain in Exile, MF Husain in Qatar: Law, Art, and the Strange Case of India’s Lost Painter
Introduction Few artists in modern India embody adoration and controversy like Maqbool Fida Husain, more popularly known as M.F. Husain did and continues to do. Often celebrated as among India’s leading modern artists, unfortunately, Husain spent his final years outside India. This was not because he was exiled by some law or decree, but by a steady barrage of court cases that in most cases edged on harassment. Now, more than a decade after his…
Drilling Down on Due Diligence: Why Woodside’s Extension is a Legal Litmus Test
The energy industry often operates on the assumption that if a project is big enough, its economic gravitational pull will simply warp the legal landscape to accommodate it. However, the proposed extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas processing plant in Western Australia—set to run until 2070—is proving to be a legal gauntlet. Facing challenges from both the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and Friends of Australian Rock Art (FoARA), the federal environment minister’s approval is…