Art & Cultural Law

We advise Austrian federal museums, private museums, galleries and artists on all legal aspects of everyday art business – from the conception of national and international loan agreements to insurance issues and copyright disputes. In recent years, our law firm has also gained an excellent reputation in the field of art restitution.

Our services

• dafting and negotiation of loan and gallery agreements for the national and international circulation of art
• advice in connection with the purchase and sale of works of art
• clarification of insurance and inheritance law issues
• reconciliation of interests in connection with 'looted art' and the Austrian Art Restitution Act

Expertise & Experience

1. re-establishment of state liability for the Austrian federal museums, conception and drafting of the regulation 'Federal Liability for Third-Party Loans' on behalf of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Art History Museum of Vienna)
2. representation of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Art History Museum of Vienna) in connection with legal issues relating to the theft of the 'Saliera' by Benvenuto Cellini in the year 2003
3. pro bono representation of Matthias Hammer, professor at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), in connection with court proceedings relating to the use of the cartoon figure 'Pumuckl' in the sense of limitations to copyright (quotation, irony, collage)
4. reaching a six-digit euro settlement for two thirds of the heirs of Jenny Steiner in the dispute with the Leopold Museum Private Foundation over the restitution of Egon Schiele's 'Houses by the Sea'