CHICAGO – Dec. 15, 2014 –The international law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP has launched a new blog focused on art and cultural property law.
The Cultural Assets blog will discuss emerging issues in art, cultural property and cultural heritage law, including artists’ rights, collectors’ rights, art dealers’/galleries’/auction houses’ rights, and rights and issues arising in connection with museums, cultural organizations, and lending or commercial transactions in which art and cultural property may play a part.
“We are very excited about the launch of Cultural Assets. This is an important and growing area of law, and one in which the complex rules that apply to art and cultural property are constantly changing,” said Kevin P. Ray, who is of counsel in the Chicago office and an editor of the blog.
“We hope that this blog will be of interest to our current and potential clients and will keep them up to date about important developments,” added Mark Tratos, a shareholder in the firm’s Las Vegas office and also an editor of the blog.
Ray focuses his practice in the areas of art and cultural heritage law and financial services (lending transactions and restructuring/insolvency matters). He represents and advises artists, art galleries, art collectors, museums, and cultural institutions in a variety of transactions, including consignments, questions of title, provenance, and compliance with national and international law. Ray is co-chair of the American Bar Association’s International Art & Cultural Heritage Law Committee, and is author of the forthcoming book, Art and Cultural Property in Business Transactions (American Bar Association, 2015).
Tratos is the founding shareholder of the firm's Las Vegas office and focuses his practice on a variety of entertainment, intellectual property and litigation matters. Tratos is the author of the New York Bar Association's Entertainment Treatise chapters on "The Evolution of Entertainment on the Internet," "The Evolution of Entertainment Production, Distribution, Ownership and Control in the Digital Age," and "Exhibitions: Art and Artifacts Exhibits as an Expansion of the Entertainment Industry." Tratos recently represented Peter Lik and LIK USA™ in the sale of the most expensive fine art photograph in history for an unprecedented, world record of $6.5 million. Read "Peter Lik Sets World Record."
Greenberg Traurig attorneys advise clients in a variety of art and cultural property-related matters, including art-estate planning; due diligence in acquisitions and sales; provenance and title disputes; disputes concerning authenticity; disputes between buyers and sellers; restitution claims (including World War II-era claims concerning confiscated or forced sale artworks); repatriation claims; import/export issues; museum loans of art and cultural property; and loans and other financings collateralized by art and cultural property.