Schedule of Classes
Class times for Fall, 2006 have not been released yet.279 sec. 1 - Art Law (Fall 2006)
Instructor: Denise Alter
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Units: 3
Meeting Time: -
Meeting Location: -
Course Control Number (Non-1Ls): 49721
Italy is criminally prosecuting a Getty Museum curator for allegedly trafficking stolen antiquities. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art recently agreed to return to Rome other Etruscan pieces, the provenance of which Italy challenged. China seeks the return of antiquities from British museums while Peru threatens to sue Yale University over relics in its collection taken a century ago from Machu Picchu. In other recent cases, a southern California woman regained valuable Klimpt paintings from Austria, misappropriated from her family during the Holocaust. A 2004 United States Supreme Court decision enabled her to overcome sovereign immunity to sue Austria. These events shadow the complex web behind the multibillion dollar trade in stolen art and antiquities.
Art Law examines these and other significant legal issues at the intersection of law and art facing artists, museums, collectors, conservators, auction houses, dealers, and international governments. Issues important to artists will be reviewed including artists’ rights laws, intellectual property concerns such as appropriation and copyright, and First Amendment questions of obscenity and censorship. The class will study the changing face of museums, raising issues of public trust and public access, conflicts of interest in gifting, accessioning and deaccessioning art, and art stewardship and conservation in contemporary art. Collectors, including large corporate collectors like Microsoft Corporation (the art collection of which we will study), face a myriad of collection management challenges that intersect the law at every turn. Galleries, dealers, and auction houses confront fakes, forgeries, and contractual disputes that raise complex questions of law as to authenticity, provenance, and value in the business of art.
Denise M. Alter, Esq. teaches this course. Denise is founding partner at Bridge Law in San Francisco. Guest speakers slated for the course include Jill Sterrett — Director of Collections and Conservation at the San Francisco Museum of Art, Laura Matzer — Art Program Education and Outreach Manager from Microsoft Corporation, and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson — Director and Chief Curator of the Aspen Art Museum. Students will investigate, research, and present oral and written reports on current legal topics in art. This course may satisfy Boalt’s writing requirement. The only prerequisite is a passion for art and the law. The course is open to graduate art students at Berkeley.
There is a course web page available for this course.
Exam Notes: P/P+
Special Notes: W
Course Category: Technology and Intellectual Property
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Books:
Books for this term are unavailable.
