Museum directors agree protocols to provide safe havens for endangered antiquities

Amidst armed conflicts in Syria and Iraq, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) has announced the release of protocols to help safeguard irreplaceable works of art and archeological materials that are currently in danger of destruction or trafficking.

The Protocols for Safe Havens for Works of Cultural Significance from Countries in Crisis provide a framework for museums to provide safe havens for works at risk from violent conflict, terrorism, or natural disasters.

In a press statement made earlier this month, the AAMD states that the Protocols allow owners/depositors whose works are at risk of damage or destruction to request safe haven at an AAMD member museum, where the works will be held until they can be safely returned. All deposited works will be treated as loans, preventing any issues of title ownership arising at a later date. Details of those works will also be made publicly available on a new section of the AAMD’s online Object Registry, ensuring transparency.

The Protocols consider the preservation of a work’s physical integrity as well as its safety, its provisions covering transport and storage, scholarly access, legal protections, exhibition, conservation issues, and the safe return of endangered works to the appropriate individuals or entities as soon as is feasible.

The AAMD has strongly encouraged its 240 members in the US, Canada, and Mexico to adopt these Protocols, and has invited museums around the world to use the Protocols in their efforts to protect endangered works.

Whilst not legally binding, these Protocols are indicative of the shifting attitudes towards the importance of international cooperation and intervention in protecting cultural heritage, and their release coincides with the first prosecution of cultural heritage destruction as a war crime.

“The scale of human suffering and loss of life that is taking place in Syria and other afflicted areas is devastating, and is compounded by the loss of unique works that are the record of different cultures and our shared humanity,” said Johnnetta Cole, President of the AAMD, and Director of the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.

“The level of destruction and the intentional damage is deplorable and an attempt to eradicate cultural identity in tandem with the murder and repression of individuals. We stand with the international community in condemning these reprehensible acts of violence and brutal vandalism, and believe it is vital that we do everything in our power to help save endangered works for all people and for future generations.”

The AAMD’s press statement can be read in full here.

The full Protocols can be downloaded here.

Taking Art law to the MAXXI

Sometimes the legal issues got a little bit blurry

Last Thursday and Friday there was a fantastic international art law conference organised by Massimo Sterpi on behalf of the International Bar Association at the MAXXI art gallery in Rome. There was a huge range of speakers from artists to curators, academics to lawyers.

The speakers gave a fascinating insight into the world of galleries and museums, private collections and provoked considerable debate on some of the issues facing the art world today. The sorts of issues covered included

(1) how you reach a legal definition of art – a particular issue when trying to justify a hefty price tag for what might, to the untrained eye, look like a pile of bricks or a bit of twisted neon light,

(2) how new forms of art such as holograms can fall within old legal definitions,

(3) ownership of digital art, particularly when it includes user generated content or consist of collections of other works gathered from across the internet – pinterest was a particular discussion point,

(4) broader questions of ownership of art, particularly large scale public or performance art primarily in the context of the Burning Man project,

(5) appropriationism including the case law (hello Jeff Koons, Cariou v Prince et al),

(6) the different treatment of art in different legal systems, particularly the relatively open approach of copyright compared to the prescriptive and literal approach of tax laws,

(7) the dangers that museums and galleries face from last minute lawsuits to demonstrations and public being put in danger (fire, falling masonry, falling over in darkness… the list of potential danger is seemingly endless),

(8) controversies surrounding certain types of art, particularly bio art (from glowing green bunnies to pickled human bodies).

The wonderful Zaha Hadid creation that is the MAXXI

Unsurprisingly, given the number of lawyers in the room, there was a lot of talk about copyright and the inherent problems in applying an old system to a new world where digital reproduction is quick and common and appropriationism has become an accepted and almost mainstream art form. 

Suggested solutions included a form of compulsory licensing for copyright works (similar to the approach taken in patent law), a taxation approach (i.e. you have to pay money if your use of a work makes you any money – probably not the favoured approach of the content industries), and a shorter term of copyright protection.

 I will be blogging in more detail on the issues raised in due course but if any of the above are of particular interest please let me know in the comments section below and I will try to cover them first...