Art & Cultural Property

3VB has a very well-established presence and reputation in this always interesting and often high profile field – which typically includes cases for and against art dealers, auctioneers, museums and national galleries, and buyers, sellers and custodians of works of art and cultural artefacts, and can involve banks, investors, insurers, valuers and other professional and institutional bodies and individuals. Cases commonly involve questions of the attribution or dating of works of art; issues of title, restitution, repatriation and the Waverley rules; art lending; disputes as to the rights of owners against agents and bailees; and, more broadly, allegations of breach of contract, fraud and negligence.

The subject-matter of art law litigation makes this field an exceptionally good fit with the wider fields of work in a large commercial set like 3VB. 3VB is able to provide a full service in all areas of art and cultural property litigation – extending (importantly in the current world) to blockchain/crypto and fintech expertise.

Past cases include Feilding (Wemyss) v Simon Dickinson Ltd (2022), QIPCO v J E Ltd (2020), Jeddi v Sotheby’s & Ors (2018); Thwaytes v Sotheby’s (2014), Coleridge v Sotheby’s (2012), Andre v Clydesdale Bank plc (2013), Coleridge v Sotheby’s (2012), Spencer-Churchill v Faggionato Fine Arts Ltd (2012); Accidia Foundation v Simon C. Dickinson Ltd 2010), Iran v Berend (2007), Thomson v Christie’s (2005).  The part played by Andrew Onslow KC and the late, much missed, Richard Edwards QC in Thwaytes is told in the book Caravaggio’s Cardsharps on Trial (2020), an account of the Thwaytes case by Professor Richard Spear, Sotheby’s expert at trial. More generally, members of 3VB have acted and advised in the Rybolovlev/Bouvier litigation, the Philbrick litigation, and claims concerning works by Richter, Aitchison, Chardin, Modigliani, Picasso, Basquiat and others; and cultural artefacts originating (or said to originate) from India, Iran, South East Asia and, in the case of 2,391 silver bars, found at the bottom of the sea.

3VB is a leading set in art and cultural property, having strength and depth across a very broad range of seniority and experience, instructions from all leading art law solicitors, and presence in most of the recent and current leading cases.