Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Law
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Reference Department
About
What is cultural heritage?
"The term cultural heritage encompasses several main categories of heritage:
- Cultural heritage
- Tangible cultural heritage:
- movable cultural heritage (paintings, sculptures, coins, manuscripts)
- immovable cultural heritage (monuments, archaeological sites, and so on)
- underwater cultural heritage (shipwrecks, underwater ruins and cities)
- Intangible cultural heritage: oral traditions, performing arts, rituals
- Tangible cultural heritage:
- Natural heritage: natural sites with cultural aspects such as cultural landscapes, physical, biological or geological formations
- Heritage in the event of armed conflict"
Source: UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
What is art law?
"Art law is not a unified discipline, like Torts or Contracts. Instead, it is a field that studies the legal problems of an industry. The industry is composed of a number of different players: artists, critics, collectors, gallery operators, auctioneers, and museums, as well as the myriad state, federal and international government officials who regulate the industry, such as local police, customs officers, trade officials, attorneys general, and tax collectors. Their legal problems fall within a large number of domains, including constitutional law, torts, contracts, agency, copyright, trademark, moral rights, tax, property, nonprofit organizations, international law, and civil procedure."
Source: Mastering Art Law, by Herbert Lazerow
Research Database: IFAR
- IFAR [International Foundation for Art Law - Art Law & Cultural Property Database]The IFAR Art Law & Cultural Property Database is a comprehensive online research tool to help navigate the rapidly increasing body of legislation and case law concerning the acquisition, authenticity, export, and ownership of art and cultural objects. From cases of fraud and theft to more nuanced issues of attribution and authenticity, it includes information that is difficult to find elsewhere. Developed by the International Foundation for Art Research, a nonprofit educational and research organization, together with distinguished legal advisors, the Database draws on historical archives and extensive new research, and is continually updated and expanded.
Study Aids
The GW Law Library provides access to the Aspen Learning Library, which includes the Examples & Explanations series and CrunchTime study guides; and the LexisNexis Digital Library, which includes the Understanding and Q&A series. When prompted to login, use your GW Law email address and password.
Print study aids may be borrowed from the Reserve Collection at the Law Library's Circulation/Reserve Desk for up to 2 hours. Older editions may be found in the Law Library stacks. For more study aids in the Law Library's collection, please consult our Study Aids guide.
Casebooks
Search the Library's catalog, JACOB, to see if a book required for class is on Course Reserve in the Library. Course Reserve materials may be checked out from the Library's Circulation/Reserve Desk for up to two hours.
