Art lawyers

Represented Tate Gallery on a ground-breaking collaboration and exhibition with Shanghai's Pudong Museum to help Tate negotiate with the state-owned Shanghai Lujiazui Group and advised on English and Chinese law contracts. 

Assisted an online art dealer in setting up an Italian company involved in pooling investments in art. The company would also offer NFTs. Our advice focuses on the opportunity of setting up a start-up or an innovative Small-Mid enterprise (SME) as well as on the VAT aspects of using a "margin scheme" and the eventual implications arising from the sale of NFTs.

During divorce proceedings, we advised an art collector with respect to the division of his £500million art collection. Matters covered included the adequate preservation of retained art works, the disposal of those works neither wished to retain, as well as inter-jurisdictional tax-related issues of import and export.

We advise a London gallery in relation to a claim against their storage company for breach of contractual, common law and tortious duties, following the damage of a multimedia sculpture whilst in the storage company's possession. The dispute is centred on whether the storage company's terms and conditions were validly incorporated in the contractual relationship between the parties.

We are defending an auction house in relation to a claim for conversion brought by a gallery's insurers. The insurers argue that the catalogue description of a 19th century sculpture sold at auction in 2015 matched the records of a stolen sculpture from their client's gallery, and are thus seeking damages equal to the amount they paid to the gallery when the sculpture was stolen.

We advised an art collector who was jointly sued with Sotheby's by a buyer and his representative. The claimants sought the rescission of the sale agreement, the return of the purchase price and/ or damages for the loss suffered on the grounds of the statue being a posthumous rather than lifetime cast. We secured a settlement for our client and in the end the parties settled on amicable terms.

We advise the executors and beneficiaries of estates on the tax implications of legacies to charity. We recently obtained valuations of a painting already left under a will to a gallery in order to assess the size of the additional cash legacy which would need to be paid to charity to enable the estate to qualify for the reduced inheritance tax rate of 36%- which applies when 10% of an estate is left to charity. The reduced inheritance tax can be of benefit to the chargeable residuary beneficiaries.

We secured a favourable settlement for a London-based art dealer regarding a potential fraudulent misrepresentation claim against a New York dealer, who co-owned a sculpture by Franz West with our client. Our client learnt that the true purchase price had only been a fraction of what his co-owner had disclosed to him, leading our client to pay an unjustified additional sum of money.

Withers represented the estate of a renowned European contemporary artist in seeking to bring about the return of numerous artworks that had not been returned by a German gallery following the artist's death in the mid-2000's.

We acted for a London based art dealer against an Italian collector in a dispute relating to the sale of two Old Master paintings that they jointly owned. Proceedings were brought in London and Geneva, and subsequently settled following extensive negotiations.

We acted for the trustees of an estate in advising on a potential claim by the Italian State to the ownership of a Roman era fragment marble relief. The relief was purchased in the 1960s in Switzerland and passed to the state following the death of the purchaser. Having been put up for sale by the trustees, it was spotted at an art fair as being linked to a number of other reliefs that had been seized by the Italian authorities having been illegally excavated in the early 2000s. Withers assisted the trustees in bringing about the restitution of the relief to Italy.

We represented a company related to a renowned industrial designer in English and New York proceedings against a former business associate who had defaulted on a loan and misappropriated numerous artworks belonging to the company. The proceedings were settled with, amongst other matters, a significant number of the artworks being returned to their rightful owner.

We represented one of Saudi Arabia's leading contemporary artists in a multi-jurisdictional claim against an auction house and a Dubai based gallery. The claim derived from the unauthorized selling of one of the artist's own artworks by the Dubai gallery at an auction. The matter was successfully settled.

Provided ongoing pro-bono work for a prominent New York historical museum.

Advised an international bank on a revolving demand loan secured by artwork to an individual borrower. This is the Bank's first loan of this kind in Asia. We drafted the loan agreement and all security documents.

We successfully represented a major international gallery in a lawsuit claiming art that it exhibited on behalf of an artist it represented violated the copyright rights of a photographer.

We routinely represent individuals of extraordinary ability in business, sciences and art in obtaining employment visas and green cards.

Represented an art collector who purchased what was represented to be a painting by a well-known American painter, but which was revealed to be one of many forged paintings in a major art forgery scandal. In a similar case, Withers London acted for a collector against an auction house when he discovered that they had been selling numerous paintings by the same forger.

We represented a major art lender in exposing a dealer who committed an industry-wide fraud, and successfully represented the lender in several follow on cases to clean up multiple competing title claims and insurance recoveries.

We advised a US museum concerning the structure and receipt of complex gifts.

Advised a company specialising in buying and selling art in an LCIA arbitration dispute over the ownership of a Monet painting under Swiss law.

We offer general employment and employee benefits advice, supplementing the HR function at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

We are advising in a dispute over the ownership of over 300 paintings worth approximately £13 million belonging to a company owned by a family trust. One of the beneficiaries of the trust, who had been custodian of the art, sold a number of works to auction houses as security for loans and we are currently negotiating the return of the remaining artworks. The works of art include paintings by Picasso, Renoir and Matisse.

Following the alleged theft of nine old master paintings from a European art gallery, we represented insurance underwriters in a fraud claim relating to the art work, and resulting in a successful settlement.

We assisted our client by drafting loan agreements to over 100 museums and institutions both locally and globally and for several renowned New York City museum exhibits.

Withers’ pre-eminent reputation in the art world led a highly respected auction house to ask for our help with a series of multi-jurisdiction lawsuits. The fascinating case concerned one of the world’s largest tribal art collections, which was subject to competing ownership claims by siblings, as well as being pledged as collateral for a loan and donated to a museum.

We represented the son and heir of a well-known American painter in cases arising out of a major art fraud worth an estimated $100 million. Our client had been among numerous victims of a Manhattan dealer who had committed the deceit to fund his extravagant lifestyle.