Archive of Henry Lydiate‘s Artlaw column, published in Art Monthly since 1976. Have a legal question about your career? Check our Directory or send us a legal query.
Sotheby’s and Christie’s
The new year ushered in several important judicial decisions dealing with artlaw matters, including the Bacon Estate; the Sotheby’s and Christie’s so called ‘price fixing’ case; payments to artists of royalty fees by UK Universities; and Gilbert…
Sellers, Buyers and Auctioneers Beware
London is arguably the world’s leading art auction location, and the oldest. Sotheby’s was established in 1744, Christie’s in 1796, Bonham’s in 1793 and Phillips in 1796. The legal and business framework for auctions in…
Artists’ Selling Power
The film and entertainment industries exercise strong bargaining power over non negotiating artists, or ‘hired hands’, whose marketability remains unproven and relatively low – the powerless majority. However they have had to learn to accept the bargaining…
Beautiful Inside My Head Forever
‘The fine artist came to seem a near miraculous creator of value, transmuting relatively inexpensive materials into fabulously expensive commodities.’ Katy Siegel and Paul Mattick’s comment on the development of today’s art market place, in…