Art and Cultural Property

We work closely with museums and cultural organizations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, SFMOMA, the Broad, the Museum of Fine Art, Houston, the Whitney Museum, Harvard University, Rhode Island Institute of Design, Southern Methodist University, University of Oklahoma, and Yale University Art Gallery. Our clients seek our advice and guidance on matters involving ultra-valuable artworks, including those by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, Henri Matisse, El Greco, and others. 

Drawing on decades of experience, we serve as general or special counsel on formation and governance; restitution and ownership disputes; endowments and restrictions; charitable giving; employment and benefits; immigration; grants and contracts; environmental compliance; real estate and export controls. We steer major projects through capital planning and disclosure. We advise boards and officers on approvals, continuing disclosures, and investor communications. We draft collections policies; advise on acquisitions, donor restrictions, and gift acceptance; structure exhibition, loan, and collaboration agreements; and work with registrars and conservators to manage risk and compliance. We also manage government indemnity and immunity programs and the logistics of international exhibitions, moving art across borders while controlling risk and cost. 

Our advice is grounded in deep experience with museum and university governance, policy, and disclosure, and we provide clear direction and defensible solutions that protect client mission and advance client goals.

Great collections and artists estates are built, protected, and passed on with care. To make sure their plans are on the right track, clients seek our advice on commissions, purchases, loans, exhibitions, donations, succession planning, and financing related needs. We turn intention into action: setting guardrails for acquisitions and deaccessioning, planning for loss and crisis, and aligning valuation, insurance, data, and documentation so each object has a reliable record. When questions arise about identity, history, or care, we combine archival research, expert networks, scientific testing, and market intelligence to test provenance, attribution, and condition. For market participants with heightened scrutiny, we build practical anti-money laundering programs, policies, and training that live inside the client’s operations. The result is a collection managed with clarity, resilience, and credibility.

We regularly structure exhibition and institutional loans that send artworks into the world. Navigating cultural property and patrimony regimes, export and import controls, embargoes and sanctions, and customs requirements and restrictions to bring order to the regulatory landscape and ensure the artwork—and the client’s reputation—are protected every step of the journey. 

For clients seeking liquidity without sacrificing opportunity, we unlock value through art-secured financing. We arrange credit facilities under Article 9 and analogous regimes, manage collateral diligence and perfection, and coordinate custody and control across lenders, custodians, insurers, and logistics partners so capital moves as efficiently as the art itself. And when a single transaction spans a collection—crossing jurisdictions, counterparties, and asset classes—we choreograph the moving parts and align interests to deliver the necessary results.

We are market leaders in handling disputes over ownership and possession, including matters involving wartime dispossession, illicit excavation and export, and cultural patrimony. We work with foreign sovereigns, museums and ministries of culture, law enforcement, and international bodies. We manage choice of law and procedure across borders and bring or defend claims for replevin, conversion, declaratory relief, and injunctions, including emergency freezes and mirror actions to recover assets. Our work in this area has established key precedents regarding foreign sovereign immunity and application of foreign law to domestic disputes. We have great experience negotiating practical, creative, and fair resolutions and, when resolution is not possible, we have a proven record of success across numerous litigations and trials.

We help artists, estates, and rights holders protect and grow the value of creative work. We handle copyright and licensing for how works are reproduced, shown, and shared, and advise on moral rights and fair use in museum, publishing, and education settings. Our team also supports digital art and blockchain projects, from smart contract terms, resale royalties, and provenance tracking to stopping online infringement and managing platform takedowns. For brands, we build global licensing programs across apparel, beauty, home, food and beverage, and NFTs, aligning IP protection with advertising and FTC rules, tax, and privacy. We draft social policies and agreements; counsel on content, endorsements and name image likeness, distribution, and guild/union matters; and manage IP registrations and enforcement in the US and abroad, including USPTO proceedings and complex litigation.

We transform your philanthropic vision into an integrated plan with our tax, trusts and estates, and nonprofit colleagues so legal strategy, ownership, and governance reinforce each other. By coordinating lifetime and testamentary transfers with appraisals, substantiation, and charitable commitments, we turn gifts, partial interests, and private operating foundation or museum initiatives into tools that steward the art, advance mission, and manage risk. For private clients and family offices, we align estate and gift planning with financial goals and tax efficiency, coordinating external advisors to preserve and transition wealth while embedding governance that endures across generations. For international families, we rationalize ownership of art, financial assets, and businesses across jurisdictions, address property regimes and mobility, and manage reporting to minimize exposure and keep the plan coherent as circumstances change.

We are recognized leaders in tax-exempt and taxable financings for nonprofit cultural institutions nationwide. Our team structures and executes complex bond transactions; prepares disclosure materials and rating agency presentations; and guides board approvals and governance, supported by dedicated § 103 tax lawyers with unparalleled administrative, regulatory, and legislative experience. We lead financings for museums, foundations, and cultural institutions from initial planning through closing and post-issuance compliance. Our Public Finance Tax Team focuses exclusively on tax matters in the exempt and taxable bond markets, advising on novel structures and regulatory change and leveraging deep relationships with federal tax officials to anticipate, interpret, and operationalize new guidance efficiently.

We partner with tax exempt organizations from their earliest vision through the full arc of their operations, helping founders choose and secure the right structure, build resilient governance, and steward endowments and restricted funds in alignment with mission and donor intent. As institutions grow, we craft thoughtful approaches to charitable giving and tax-exempt financing, guide employment and benefits practices that reflect their values, and navigate immigration needs that bring global talent to the work. We negotiate and manage grants and contracts, advise on civil rights and affirmative action policies, and embed environmental and export control compliance into everyday decision making. Our team safeguards real estate transactions and protects student privacy, all while serving as both general and special counsel to nonprofit entities across the cultural sector. We integrate regulatory insight with transactional execution and pragmatic dispute resolution to advance our client’s mission with confidence, meet their obligations with integrity, and protect their reputation.