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.
Is it discrimination under UK law to advertise an opportunity for artists under a certain age?
An opportunity states that it is only open to artists under or over a certain age. Is this discriminatory under UK law? UK equal…
Taking Care of Business
Damien Hirst’s autobiography will be published by Viking Penguin in Autumn 2015. When recently announcing the deal, the publishers promised that Hirst will ‘lay bare the modern art world’. The book will be co written with…
Post-Internet Art
The World Wide Web is 25 years old this year. UK computer scientist Tim Berners Lee first proposed the concept in March 1989, and by November that year he had achieved the first Internet communication between a Hypertext…
My gallery had agreed to return my work months ago but now they seem to have lost it.
Where a gallery holds works that are owned by the artist, the gallery holds them as a “bailee” under what is known…
Suing Art Experts
Last month’s consideration of art after death suggested that artists might adopt straightforward and sensible practices to authenticate and inventorise their works, to avoid difficulty and complication after death as well as during their lifetimes. This month…
London Centre for Book Arts: a case study
Simon Goode is an artist who set up his own centre and workshop dedicated to book arts in 2012. Here he charts the journey of the London Centre for Book Arts, concentrating…
Are you licensing your work for free if you upload it on social media sites?
Many of us overlook reading the terms of service in relation to the social media outlets we use, and yet this is what determines our…
Who is liable for insurance for artwork kept on consignment?
A shop or gallery would always be legally responsible for taking good care of works it received on consignment from artists, and should make careful arrangements accordingly. When the shop/gallery…
Death of an Artist
Artistic legacies emerged as a theme in art news reports towards the end of 2013. For example, UK courts ruled that drawings sold as Francis Bacons were inauthentic, and US court documents revealed that 35 paintings…
Material Ephemerality
Works made from short life materials used by modern and contemporary artists increasingly pose problems and challenges for those who handle or possess works: collectors, estates and foundations, conservators and restorers, curators and consignees, storers and transporters; and…
Fair Use?
‘Copyright protection finds its justification in fair play. A person works and produces something. The product of his skill and labour ought to belong to him … It has long been recognised that only the original author ought…
If my gallery is based abroad who will decide in case of a dispute?
In the case of two parties located in different countries – say the artist in England and a gallery in the USA – a vital term…
Is there a definite ruling on what constitutes an edition?
There isn’t a legal definition of what makes an edition. Instead, an edition may be limited by contract (which can be verbal) and by making representations. So, for example, if…
Why are Artists Poor?
Borrowing the title of Hans Abbing’s important sociological interrogation of contemporary art practice from 2007, let us consider a case in point. A young unknown artist relocated 30 odd kilometres north of his hometown to a…
Consignment: Trust
The term commonly used to describe the contractual relationship between artists supplying their works to galleries for exhibition and possible sale is ‘consignment’. In business and legal terms, consignment does not mean selling work to a gallery, rather…
Renting Art: Borrowers and Lenders Beware
Borrowing and lending art is generally a good thing. The practice can increase and broaden access by spectators who might not otherwise be able to experience directly the creative act. It can also generate…
Creative Collaborators: Authors or Assistants?
In this post digital age increasing numbers of artists collaborate to create non traditional works of time based or mixed media, for which a significant global market has developed and is advancing. For art market…
Who Owns Street Art
A Banksy style rat holding a sign asking ‘Why?’ was recently stencilled on the wall outside a London shop from which the Banksy attributed mural Slave Labour had been hacked away a few weeks earlier. This…