Services

Art dealers, auction houses, and galleries have to deal with both the routine legal issues faced by any enterprise and specialized legal issues related to the purchase and sale of artwork. The firm assists clients with all of their legal needs. Lord has advised major auction houses, art dealers, and galleries — including many members of the Art Dealers Association of America.

Artists and artists’ estates work with art dealers and galleries to sell their artworks and advance their reputations. Lord has helped artists and artists’ estates protect their rights, their artworks, and their intellectual property.

Collectors often need legal advice relating to the purchase and sale of artworks (privately or by public auction), insuring their collections, commissioning artworks, loans of artworks to museum exhibitions, and occasionally, disputes relating to artworks they have acquired. Lord has advised some of the world’s most important collectors on these issues.

Recent decades have seen an increase in claims related to lost and stolen works of art. Lord has advised individuals and families on the recovery of artworks lost during World War II and on the recovery of stolen artworks.

Lord has worked with fiduciaries and trusts and estates counsel on the disposition of significant artworks in an estate context. Sales by estates may raise issues that are distinct from ordinary transactions and require specialized advice.

Lord has advised museums on a variety of different issues relating to maintaining collections of artworks and antiquities. This includes the drafting of collections management policies and issues relating to insurance both for permanent collections and loans.

The firm works with collectors to ensure that loans of artworks can be made to museums safely and with the protections that owners of important artworks require. Lord has worked on loans to many museums in the U.S. and abroad, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Tate Modern, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Art dealers, galleries, and museums also have all the legal concerns of ordinary business. Lord has assisted clients with leases, employment agreements, and other kinds of commercial arrangements.

Title Disputes

Unfortunately, there are many works of art in the marketplace that have been stolen or looted.  These include artworks that were stolen or looted during the Nazi era and antiquities that were illegally removed from their country of modern discovery.  Lord has worked with families whose predecessors lost artworks during the Nazi era due to persecution and has helped recover almost 300 Nazi-looted artworks.  Lord has also worked to recover looted antiquities. 

Collectors who receive claims that artworks or antiquities they have acquired were stolen or looted need to have those claims evaluated carefully. They are typically fact intensive and often come with historical documentation that may or may not be complete. Lord uses his academic training and works with specialized researchers to assist clients in examining claims and formulating responses to them. 

The firm also assists clients in conducting due diligence prior to the purchase of an artwork to help ensure that any questions about whether the seller can pass good title are properly evaluated.

Authenticity disputes

Fakes and forgeries are an endemic problem in the art market, and even careful, sophisticated collectors may find themselves with artworks whose authenticity has been questioned. With his deep background in art history, Lord is uniquely positioned to assist clients with authenticity issues.

Insurance Claims

Regardless of the precautions taken, artworks are sometimes damaged or stolen. When there is a loss, Lord works with clients as necessary to enforce their rights under their insurance policies.