Art law
Anyone who works with art works with value. Not only the financial value of a painting or sculpture, but also the cultural significance of a collection, the reputation of a museum or the artistic legacy of an artist. You do not protect that value with a good lock on the door alone. It calls for legal advice from someone who knows the art world.
Art law is not a clearly demarcated area of law in the classic sense. It is a crossroads where copyright, contract law, property law, heritage law and administrative law come together. A gallery owner drawing up a consignment agreement is right in the middle of contract law. A museum that wants to sell items from its collection has to deal with the Heritage Act (Erfgoedwet) and the LAMO. With the resale right, it comes down to the Copyright Act. And a collector who buys a work at auction that later turns out not to be authentic? They face questions of mistake (dwaling) and non-conformity.
Liaise Advocaten specialises in art law and advises museums, galleries, art dealers, auction houses, collectors and artists on loans, the purchase and sale of artworks, the Heritage Act and collection management.
Jaap Versteeg has worked for clients in the art world for many years. He advises museums and art collections, galleries and art dealers, auction houses and individual artists. Jaap thinks along not only in legal terms, but commercially and strategically too. He has held supervisory positions at cultural festivals and orchestras and is a member of the Association for Art, Culture and Law (Vereniging voor Kunst, Cultuur en Recht).
Would you like to know where you stand legally? Call 020 675 88 21 or email Jaap Versteeg for an initial conversation.
Legal advice for museums: collection management, loans and governance
Museums are the custodians of our cultural heritage. But behind that fine task lies a world of legal obligations.
Take the movement of loans. Museums constantly lend works to one another, to and from private collections, and increasingly across borders too. Every loan requires an agreement with arrangements on insurance, transport, liability for damage and the duration of the loan. The usual practice is nail-to-nail insurance: a policy that covers the artwork from the moment it is taken off the wall at the lender until the moment it hangs back in place. For valuable works and international exhibitions, the premiums run high. The Indemnity Scheme for Museum Loans (Indemniteitsregeling museale bruiklenen) offers a solution in some cases, because the State takes on part of the risk. But not every loan qualifies, and the conditions are strict.
Then there is collection management. Museums registered with the Netherlands Museum Register (Museumregister Nederland) must endorse the Ethical Code for Museums and keep an up-to-date collection plan. If a museum wants to dispose of objects from its collection, the Guideline for the Disposal of Museum Objects (Leidraad Afstoten Museale Objecten, LAMO) prescribes a careful procedure: from internal selection to publication on the Disposals Database (Afstotingsdatabase, ADB), from assessment by an independent committee to the actual transfer. If the museum is owned by a municipality, province or other public authority, the disposal procedure under the Heritage Act also applies. That procedure is mandatory. If you do not follow it correctly, it can lead to loss of museum registration and of membership of the Museums Association (Museumvereniging), with all the consequences that entails for the Museumkaart and for future subsidy applications.
Museums must also comply with the Governance Code Cultuur, which sets out guidelines for governance and supervision. In recent years many museums have moved to a supervisory board model (raad-van-toezichtmodel, RvT model). That transition brings questions about articles of association, the division of powers and the liability of directors and supervisors. Jaap knows these questions from his own experience as a supervisor at cultural institutions too.
Since 2025 the Fair Practice Code has played an ever greater role. Compliance with this code is now a condition for BIS subsidies and the national cultural funds. That directly affects the contracts museums enter into with freelance curators, restorers, exhibition designers and other self-employed professionals.
A lawyer for the purchase and sale of artworks
In the art trade, large sums are often paid on the basis of relatively little paperwork. That goes fine as long as things go fine. But whether you are a gallery owner selling a work, a collector bidding at auction or an art dealer operating internationally: sound contractual arrangements are indispensable.
The purchase and sale of artworks raise legal questions you do not come across in other sectors. The most important is authenticity. What if a work you bought as a genuine Mondrian later turns out to be of doubtful provenance? Or if the panel on which a seventeenth-century work is painted turns out, on closer examination, to date from the nineteenth century? The legal consequences depend on what buyer and seller knew, what guarantees were given, whether an expert examination was carried out, and what contractual provisions were made about authenticity.
The ownership history of an artwork, its provenance, is legally relevant too. Especially for works that changed hands shortly before or during the Second World War, provenance can be a legal minefield. The Restitutions Committee (Restitutiecommissie) assesses claims to artworks that may have been lost involuntarily as a result of the Nazi regime. But even outside the context of looted art, an unclear provenance can lead to disputes, for example where there has been illegal import or export of cultural goods.
Finally, the resale right can play a part in any resale. Visual artists and their heirs are entitled, on every resale of their work (as long as the maker died less than 70 years ago), to a percentage of the sale price, provided a professional art dealer is involved and the sale price is at least EUR 3,000. That right is set out in the Copyright Act and cannot be contracted out of. As an art dealer, you therefore cannot write it away in your general terms or in the agreement itself.
Jaap draws up purchase agreements, reviews them, and assists clients when disputes arise over authenticity, provenance or the resale right. He knows the trading practices of the art market and knows how to make arrangements that hold up in a sector like this.
Loan agreement: legal advice for exhibitions
Behind every exhibition lies a legal operation. For each work you borrow, you draw up a loan agreement that sets out the rights and obligations of both parties.
In the museum world, nail-to-nail insurance is the standard: an all-risk policy that covers the artwork from the moment it is removed at the lender’s location until the moment it hangs back in place. Transport is included as well. But “all risk” does not mean everything is covered. Every policy contains exclusions and limitations. What if a work slowly discolours during an exhibition because of exposure to light? Is loss of value covered, or only the restoration costs? And how do you establish the loss of value when it concerns a unique work?
With international exhibitions it becomes more complicated still. Works travel through several countries, each with its own rules on import, export and protection of ownership. A work that is temporarily in the Netherlands can be seized. The years-long legal battle over the Crimean treasures at the Allard Pierson is a painful example. Works that had been lent from Ukraine ended up, because of the Russian annexation of Crimea, in an ownership dispute that was fought out before the Dutch courts. Lenders want as much certainty as possible that nothing like that happens. Borrowers want certainty that they are not liable for risks beyond their control. You can only resolve that tension with careful contractual arrangements.
Some museums stipulate in a loan that the lender may not resell the work immediately afterwards. That restriction can last a few months, but also several years. For lenders who actively manage their collection, that is a negotiating point you should not overlook.
The fact that a work is on display does not mean you may communicate about it freely. Organising an exhibition? In most cases that is allowed without the maker’s permission. But as soon as you include the work in a catalogue, put it on the museum website or share it on Instagram, you usually need permission, unless the work already belongs to the public domain. That distinction regularly goes wrong in practice.
Heritage Act and collection management: disposal and the LAMO procedure
Managing a museum collection is more than guarding physical objects. It is also a legal responsibility. Museums must document, conserve and make their collection accessible in a professional way. And if they decide to dispose of objects, strict procedures apply.
The Guideline for the Disposal of Museum Objects (LAMO) is the museum sector’s self-regulatory instrument. The most recent version dates from 2023 and describes in four steps how a museum arrives at responsible disposal: from internal research and selection to notification on the Disposals Database, from assessment by an independent committee to the actual transfer or sale.
But the LAMO is not a statute. The Heritage Act is. And it prescribes its own disposal procedure when it comes to cultural goods held by public authorities or bodies governed by public law. That procedure is mandatory. If you do not observe it, you risk intervention by the Inspectorate for Government Information and Heritage. Jaap guides museums through the interplay of these schemes, which regularly causes confusion in practice.
Legal advice for galleries and the art trade
Gallery owners and art dealers work with specific types of contract that are less common in other industries. The consignment agreement is one of them. Here the artist or owner places a work with the gallery for safekeeping with a view to sale. Ownership remains with the person who brought it in; the gallery acts as intermediary and receives a commission on sale. Simple, you would think. But there are legal risks that gallery owners often overlook: what if the gallery goes bankrupt while works are held on consignment? What if a work is damaged? And what if the gallery lends the work out without permission?
The relationship between gallery and artist has its own dynamics too. Many galleries work with exclusive representation contracts. The scope of that exclusivity, the term, the commission structure and the termination arrangement are each negotiating points that need to be properly recorded in legal terms.
Gallery owners who sell online simply fall under the obligations that consumer law lays down. The rules on distance selling apply to a painting in a webshop too: you have an information obligation, the buyer has a right of withdrawal, and specific requirements apply to how the purchase agreement comes about. Jaap helps gallery owners and art dealers draw up contracts and general terms, and assists them when a dispute arises.
Copyright in the art world: reproduction, resale right and licences
Copyright plays a part in the art world in more places than you would expect. A visual artist automatically has copyright in their work. That right arises at the moment of creation and does not have to be registered. It gives the artist the exclusive right (subject to a few exceptions laid down in law) to determine who may reproduce, communicate to the public or adapt the work.
What it often comes down to in practice: what may you do with an artwork you have bought? Ownership of the physical work passes to the buyer, but copyright stays with the artist (or with their heirs, up to seventy years after death). Exhibiting a work is allowed. But having a poster printed, including it in the catalogue, showing it on the website or sharing it via social media: for that you usually need permission from the rights holder. Or a licence, for example through Pictoright. That applies even if the work has hung in the collection for decades.
Seventy years after the maker’s death, you may freely reproduce a work. A painting by Rembrandt, a sculpture by Rodin: no problem. But a photograph of that painting may well be protected, if the photographer made creative choices in taking it. The protection then lies not in the painting, but in the photographic interpretation of it. And even the restoration of a work may, in certain circumstances, be regarded as a new copyright-protected work.
The resale right, which we spoke about earlier, is included in the Copyright Act but is really an independent right linked to copyright. It shows how copyright in the art world takes on a character of its own that differs from its application in other sectors.
Who does Jaap work for?
Jaap Versteeg assists a wide range of clients in the art world. A selection from his practice:
Museums and art collections. Jaap guides loan agreements between museums and art collections, advises on collection management and disposal, and litigates over artworks when disputes arise about ownership, authenticity or provenance.
Galleries and art dealers. From drawing up consignment agreements and exclusive representation contracts to assisting with disputes over sale, damage or non-conformity.
Auction houses. Advice on the legal position of the auction house as intermediary, on the general terms and on liability regarding authenticity.
Artists. Jaap guides visual artists through contract negotiations with galleries, questions about the resale right and disputes over reproduction rights.
Collectors. Collectors who need legal advice on acquisitions, on structuring their collection or on gifts and estates.
Cultural institutions. Foundations, funds and other organisations in the cultural sector that need advice on governance, subsidy conditions and employment relationships.
Feel free to get in touch. An initial conversation to discuss your situation is always possible.
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