Course Description
Exploring and analyzing the intersection of law with art and culture, including high-profile art disputes and legislative proposals. Topics include U.S. and international laws pertaining to cultural property in wartime, illicit antiquities trade and other art crimes, art dealers, auction houses, artist's rights, museums, and galleries.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will undertake a major research paper on a selected topic and present their research findings and conclusions to the class.
Athena Title
Art and Cult Heritage Law
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Objectives The objectives of this interdisciplinary course are to define art and cultural heritage and identify how it is regulated, conserved, and protected in the world today. The course will explore legal and public policy responses to threats such as armed conflict, environmental degradation, uncontrolled development, and illicit trade along with current debates about ownership, responsibility, authenticity, and definitions of heritage. Students will have the opportunity to explore real-world case studies throughout the course and give illustrated class presentations, write a research paper, and demonstrate their knowledge of the materials and interpretive skills through class discussions and written assignments. Learning Outcomes: - To gain a working familiarity with the international laws and regulations for the protection and preservation of cultural property. - To understand the role of governments, institutional frameworks, cultural heritage professionals, and non-governmental heritage organizations in the implementation of art and cultural heritage law. - To critically examine the theories, methods, and questions that shape the effort to protect and interpret cultural heritage today and their impact on modern society, our concepts of history, and our role in shaping its future.
Topical Outline
1. Introduction to art, cultural heritage, and law 2. Human rights, cultural rights, artists’ rights, freedom of expression 3. Contested cultural heritage 4. Museums, merchants, and markets 5. International trade, looting, trafficking, recovery, and repatriation 6. Cultural heritage in times of conflict and the aftermath 7. Protecting immovable cultural property: monuments, sites, and cultural landscapes 8. Intangible cultural heritage 9. Indigenous cultural heritage 10. Cultural tourism and its impact