Author: Merryman, John Henry and Elsen, Albert E.

Publication Year: 1977

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts is the result of a collaboration between an art historian and a law professor. Albert Elsen is a Professor of Art History at Stanford University, a Rodin scholar, and former president of the College Art Association. John Henry Merryman, Professor of Law at Stanford University, is an expert on civil law. Together they have produced a most interesting casebook which is organized around the perception that there is a set of functionally related people and institutions (artists, dealers, auctioneers, collectors, museums, critics, historians and press) that constitute a visual arts world.

Abstract:

Review by James J. Fishman of the book Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts: Cases and Materials [New York, NY: Matthew Bender, 1978. 1300 p., 2 vols.].

Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts is the result of a collaboration between an art historian and a law professor. Albert Elsen is a Professor of Art History at Stanford University, a Rodin scholar, and former president of the College Art Association. John Henry Merryman, Professor of Law at Stanford University, is an expert on civil law. Together they have produced a most interesting casebook which is organized around the perception that there is a set of functionally related people and institutions (artists, dealers, auctioneers, collectors, museums, critics, historians and press) that constitute a visual arts world. The intersection of this world with the legal system is the focus of the book. Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts is divided into seven major sections: Plunder, Destruction and Reparations; The National Movement of Stolen and Smuggled Works; Defining Art and the Limits of Artistic Freedom; The Artists Rights in a Work of Art; The Artist and the Legal World; The Collector; and The Museum.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Artists-Resources for