Our Expertise: Art Market

Art is not a conventional asset. It carries provenance, emotion, moral rights, and regulatory exposure that demand interdisciplinary expertise across law, finance and art history. This is where we work.

In an industry where handshakes can close deals and borders complicate everything, we advise collectors, buyers, sellers, artists, cultural institutions, and galleries across the full lifecycle of art ownership and transactions, bringing transactional certainty and legal precision to every stage.

Acquisitions and Sales

Whether you are acquiring a museum-grade work at auction or negotiating a private sale across several jurisdictions, we structure and execute transactions that protect your interests at every step, ensuring that what transfers hands is not just the artwork, but certainty of ownership.

Contracts, Consignment and Licensing

The art market runs on relationships, but relationships need frameworks. We draft and negotiate the full spectrum of commercial agreements, such as consignment contracts, gallery representation agreements, exhibition loans, overseas touring arrangements, commission structures, and reproduction and licensing rights, etc.

Provenance and Restitution

We advise on provenance research, due diligence on cultural property, and the negotiation or litigation of restitution claims, including works displaced during wartime, colonial-era removals, and contested inheritance.

Corporate Art Governance

For family offices and corporations that hold art as part of a broader portfolio, governance matters. We structure and advise on collection policies, internal acquisition frameworks, insurance considerations, reporting obligations, and the legal architecture that ensures a corporate or institutional collection is managed with rigour and trust.

Art Finance

A collection is capital. We help clients unlock its value through art-secured loans, guarantees, fractional ownership vehicles, and bespoke investment arrangements. We act for both borrowers and lenders, ensuring that financial solutions are structured with the rigor that high-value collateral demands.

Artist Rights

We advise living artists on moral rights, resale royalties (droit de suite), intellectual property protection, studio structuring, and the commercial agreements that govern their relationships with galleries, collectors, and institutions. We ensure that an artist's legal and financial architecture reflects the value of their practice.

Export, Import and Regulatory Compliance

Moving art across borders requires more than logistics. We advise on export licensing, import duties, CITES, UNESCO and UNIDROIT convention compliance, sanctions screening, and anti-money laundering obligations, ensuring that every cross-border transaction is legally sound from departure to arrival.