Workshop 5: Tools for the Future – Researching Art Market Practices from Past to Present (7-8 September 2020)

International workshop series

TOOLS FOR THE FUTURE – RESEARCHING ART MARKET PRACTICES FROM PAST TO PRESENT

Workshop 5:  Legislation, Legal Structures and their Impact on the Art Market

Ljubljana, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

7-8  September 2020

Scientific & Organising Committee

• Renata Komić Marn, ZRC SAZU, France Stele Institute of Art History, Ljubljana
• Tina Košak, ZRC SAZU, France Stele Institute of Art History, Ljubljana & University of Maribor, Department of Art History
• Elisabetta Lazzaro, Creative Economy-HKU University of the Arts Utrecht
• Nathalie Moureau, ART-Dev University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France
• Adriana Turpin, IESA & Institute of Historical Research, London, United Kingdom

The workshop is part of the International Workshops Series “Tools for the Future: Researching art market Practices from Past to Present”, jointly founded by Elisabetta Lazzaro (HKU University of the Arts, Utrecht), Nathalie Moureau (University Paul Valéry, Montpellier 3) and Adriana Turpin (IESA Art & Culture, Paris and the Society for the History of Collecting, London). 

Through individual presentations followed by group discussions, the workshops series aims at bringing together international scholars and professionals from different disciplines, periods of study and areas of practice of the art market to confront key issues and related methods that can be used to interpret, analyse and operate through the structures and principals of the art market. Previous workshops were on art collectors (Montpellier, June 2018), the artist as an entrepreneur (Utrecht, December 2018), formation and development of new markets (London, June 2019) and communication strategies (Rome, November 2019). 

The fifth workshop, organised by the France Stele Institute of Art History ZRC SAZU, will address the role of legislation and legal regulators in the art market. The relationship between law and art can be traced back to the Middle Ages when the workshop and apprenticeship rules and guild statutes determined artists’ and other agents’ working tasks, regulating production, ensuring quality and enabling fair marketing and dissemination. Since the early modern period, estate law has defined (and limited) inheritance and ownership of artworks. While contracts with clients controlled the quality, realisation, delivering and on-time payment of private and collective artistic commissions, contracts between artists determined standards of cooperation. With the rise of the auction houses from the 17th century onwards, governments have tried to control auctioneering practices and increase transparency, issues which remain relevant to the market today. Similar considerations apply nowadays for on-line trade and digitisation of artworks, transactions and consumption, including cryptocurrencies and blockchain. The early modern period also saw the origins of copyright law, with privileges and censorship of reproducing vividly differing across Europe. Throughout the 19th century, copyright regulations were still nationally oriented, thereby resulting in national legislations obstructing or encouraging the international expansion of markets. Since the 20th century, we have witnessed the internationalisation and globalisation of laws, which are still in progress.

* The workshop is organised within the core research programme Slovenian artistic identity in European context (P6-0061), funded by Slovenian Research Agency

The workshop will be held by zoom web conferencing. As the number of participants will be limited, pre-registration is required. Please send an email to tff.ljubljana@zrc-sazu.si and specify if you wish to attend one day or both. You will then be sent a zoom link for each day of the workshop on Friday 4th September. We look forward to welcoming you.

Please the the programme here.