Center for Art Law, Brooklyn, NY
My interest in art law began during a family trip to Vienna, Austria, when I visited Gustav Klimt’s studio and home over winter break. While there, I spent most of my time amidst the temporary history exhibit on display that chronicled the movement, theft, and finally repatriation of Klimt’s works that were originally owned by Jews before World War II.
This story, and other stories of repatriated and looted art in Nazi occupied Europe compelled me and drove me to the larger field of general art law, a niche yet growing division of the law. From there, I researched internships in the field around my home town of Brooklyn, N.Y., and found and secured an opportunity with the Center for Art Law in the hip neighborhood Dumbo in Brooklyn. The Center is an independent art law entity dedicated to gathering and sharing information related to law and visual arts, for the benefit of artists, lawyers, academics, and many more. To that end, the Center disseminates its information and original content through three main outlets: its website (www.itsartlaw.org); a monthly electronic newsletter (Art Law Blast); and the programming of a range of cultural and educational events. At all stages of program development, the Center also engages with undergraduate, graduate, and legal interns, allowing them to learn first-hand about the many aspects of art law.
Since art law is such a wide yet still emerging field, I did not know what to expect from my internship. However, during the first orientation week, I dove headfirst into the field and familiarized myself with the many avenues through which the Center for Art Law operates to further the discipline. As I discovered my first week—during which we attended four events—the Center for Art Law attends and hosts events that relate to the field of art law. During my first week, we attended events at the Bar Association related to money laundering through art and about the restitution of art. We also attended a conference by RAM, the Responsible Art Market Association, that works to regulate the art market and ensure that buyers and dealers perform due diligence during their transactions. The final conference we attended was hosted by the online publication OBSERVER and featured three major panels covering topics related to the art market in general. Since we were technically representatives of the press, I actually covered the conference extensively on the Center’s website!
This brings me to the second avenue through which the Center operates: its website. The website of the organization hosts many resources, such as a catalogue of firms in the United States and abroad that have art law practices. Job openings in the field of art law are also listed on the website. The most important aspect of our website is the collection of articles about art law published by the intern writers, the Center’s staff, and external lawyers and artists who write for the site. Our articles are academic, albeit readable, and cover current and historical cases and questions related to art law. While I was an intern at the Center for Art Law, I wrote articles about the RAM event, Facebook, Inc.’s censorship of artwork, and the taxation of art donations to non-profit organizations. While writing those articles, I spoke with artists and attorneys whom I learned of through online or whom I met during networking events, such as an annual fundraiser for the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts that I attended with the Center. Also, the Center was able to introduce me to many lawyers and judges in the field through their extensive professional network of attorneys.
The third arm of the Center for Art Law is its newsletter, the Art Law Blast, which is sent to attorneys, intellects, and other members of the art law community free of charge. The Art Law Blast covers current national and international cases currently happening in the world of art law. It also publicizes job openings, books, and events. A few events we hosted were well attended thanks to our strong and loyal readership. The most interesting event we hosted while I worked at the Center was about the legal and technological difficulties that arise with respect to authenticating artwork. We heard from a panel of attorneys, art historians, and scientists. The event was attended by many members of the public from all different backgrounds, and it also awarded CLE credits to attorneys who attended.
While my internship provided an extensive and thorough introduction to the legal and art business worlds, there were also loads of other quirks that came with working for a non-profit. I enjoyed and ultimately embraced the challenges of working for a non-profit in the arts sector; at one point I was running all over the Union Square area looking for a cheese knife in 90 degree heat. However, thanks to my experience working at museums, I was able to help on the operations and development side of the Center for Art Law. For example, I got very involved writing, editing, and researching grants for the organization. I also helped run a pilot outreach program to ask former interns to contribute to the Center. Fundraising, while not always glamorous, is a necessary evil in the world of non-profits and I was happy to get more exposure to this area.
Additionally, as I mentioned previously, the internship was a great and welcoming introduction to legal work. My fellow interns, most of them lawyers, were patient in teaching me how to do legal research and legal writing. The work that I was doing for the Center was more to be expected from a second-year law student, not an undergraduate, and I feel fortunate to have been entrusted with such responsibility and quality work. The Center, since it inhabits such a unique place in the nexus of the art and law worlds, also made sure to show interns the inner workings of the art world. I had the unique experience of going to high-end art storage facilities, attending auctions, and even hosting a fundraising auction for the Center. I think I fully demonstrated my commitment to and enjoyment of the internship, and the Center for Art Law asked me to continue working with them in a paid part-time, remote position this fall. I can’t wait to continue my job at the Center and I am so grateful to the ’68 Center for Career Exploration and the Class of 1951 for making this opportunity possible.
Megamenu Social