Kent law students enjoyed an opportunity to network with leading art law experts from France and the UK when they attended a prestigious art law conference in London.
Rati Gujadhur, Morgan Copeman, Patricia Ng and Sally Tang, all undergraduate students at Kent Law School, attended ‘The Art of Advising’ conference at Notre Dame University London in October with Senior Lecturer in Law Dr Sophie Vigneron, a specialist in art and cultural heritage law.
The conference, organised by the Franco-British Lawyers Society, enabled experts from the UK and France to share their knowledge and experiences of working within the art world.
During the conference, Dr Vigneron spoke about the authenticity of art works and expert panels discussed the restitution of spoliated art works. Contributors including academics, legal practitioners, the International Director of Restitution at Christie’s, and a detective from the Art and Antiques Unit at the Metropolitan Police.
On arrival, the students were taken for lunch with Corinne Hershkovitch of Borghese Associé, a member of the Paris Bar, and Nicola Wallace, a Barrister at Four Paper Buildings. Sally said: ‘It was a delight to be able to interact with such eminent art specialist lawyers. The conference was eye-opening and a great experience for all of us, especially from the viewpoint of international law. Throughout the day we were able to network with practising art lawyers from international firms such as Mischcon de Reya, and French firms, as well as a number of academics. We are incredibly grateful to Sophie Vigneron for the opportunity of attending such an exceptional conference. Her position on the authenticity of art works further consolidated the knowledge that we had been taught in the LW583 Art Law module.’
Rati, who studies English and French Law, was surprised to discover that art law is so broad and international: ‘I enjoyed listening to the French speaking lawyers, such as Charles-Edouard Renault from De Gaulle Fleurance & Associés, and hearing about how they deal with art law. I was particularly interested in maybe working in the art law world after listening to Karen Sanig, from Mishcon de Reya; she studied the same course as I am and ended up practicing art law.’
Morgan said: ‘The conference was an amazing opportunity to put the world of art law into perspective and further explore the practical aspects of practice as well as the issues currently arising on an international level.’
Dr Vigneron teaches an undergraduate module in Art Law and a postgraduate module in Cultural Heritage Law at Kent. She is the principal investigator on the AHRC Network on the protection of Cultural Heritage Sites. Her research lies at the intersection of law and heritage studies, with a particular interest in the regulation of the art market and cultural heritage law. Her research on cultural heritage law covers both the regulation and protection of cultural objects and the built heritage by national laws (French, English and the USA) and international conventions. Her earlier work focused on the regulation of cultural objects and the restitution of stolen and/or illegally exported cultural objects, in particular in the case of historic wrong (human remains, Nazi era looted objects). She is currently working on a theoretical approach of cultural heritage law as an emerging field of study.
For more information about Dr Vigneron’s research interests and publications, visit her staff profile page.