An online debate about repatriation of art featuring expert contributions from cultural heritage law specialist Dr Sophie Vigneron is now available to watch again on YouTube.
The debate, entitled ‘Whose Legacy? Museum and Debates of National Heritage’, is one of a series of virtual roundtables, called Conversations on Europe that are sponsored by the European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh in the US.
Each online debate connects policy makers, journalists, academics, and students via video conference technology, for an interactive and in-depth analysis of a topical issue in the news.
Dr Vigneron, a senior Lecturer in Law at Kent Law School, was invited to join the panel of experts due to her particular research interests in the regulation of the art market and in cultural heritage law.
During the hour-long debate, panellists discussed the question of a museum’s responsibility to preserve culture and counter arguments in favour of reclaiming art for national or tribal heritage reasons.
Dr Vigneron’s 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. She is currently working on a theoretical approach of cultural heritage law as an emerging field of study and has been working with a network of European scholars on a Dictionary of Cultural Property. She is the principal investigator of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) network on the protection of Cultural World Heritage Sites and co-organised an international two-day conference to evaluate the efficiency of national laws, policy mechanisms and management plans that protect World Heritage Sites in January 2015. Dr Vigneron is also a member of the Institute of Art and Law, and the Société internationale pour la recherche sur le droit du patrimoine culturel.
Watch the debate again on YouTube: