Symposium: International Legal Dimensions of Art and Cultural Property

Abstract

The market for art and cultural property is international. Demand is intense and not particularly local in terms of consumer preference. 2 Supply responds to this intense international demand. Like most anything else, art finds its way to whomever is prepared to pay for it. Regulation affects how it arrives at its ultimate destination, but generally does not prevent it from getting there. Apart from this international market, legal and policy aspects of art and cultural property have a distinctly international flavor due to historical circumstance. Since many works over time have been removed from their source by way of conquest, expropriation, or theft, claims for cross-border restoration or restitution inevitably involve international law and policy considerations. Even a simple exhibition agreement at a foreign museum may generate complex issues of domestic and international private and public law.