Art

Pryor Cashman LLP is pleased to announce that litigation partner William L. Charron, who co-chairs the firm’s Art Law practice, will participate in the 2014 Authentication in Art Congress (AiA) in The Hague, the Netherlands, May 7-9, 2014. Charron will join a roundtable discussion to provide the U.S. legal perspective on the economic impact of authenticity issues on the global art market.

Charron joins a distinguished group of academics and art market professionals who include Randall Willette, the founder and managing director of Fine Art Wealth Management; Dr. Anna Dempster, leader of the Art Business and Research Methods Units of Sotheby’s Institute of Art; Dr. Jeroen Euwe; Dr. Friederike Gräfin von Brühl, an attorney with K&L Gates in Berlin; and Lawrence Shindell, Chairman and CEO of ARIS Corporation.

International trade of stolen and counterfeit art is a multi-billion dollar industry. In fact, INTERPOL ranks art crime just behind drugs, arms dealing and human trafficking as one of the most lucrative, yet illicit, markets in the world.

"The global art market is becoming infected with fake pieces and unauthenticated works which create real challenges for galleries, dealers, museums, auction houses, lenders, collectors, heirs and artists themselves to prove economic value," says Charron. "I am proud to be part of this Congress, which aims to set standards for identifying genuine works of art."

The three-day Congress will leverage the expertise of international experts on the subject of art authentication who come from a variety of backgrounds, including art historians, paintings conservators, material scientists, legal experts and others.

"The ultimate goal of the Congress is to leverage this international collaboration of great thinkers to propose protocols on art authentication that may serve as a foundation for rules of law to protect the integrity or the identity of an art object," notes Milko den Leeuw, the AiA’s co-organizer.

Charron regularly writes and speaks on the various legal issues pertaining to the international art market. He has presented at a national webinar sponsored by the New York City Bar Association on legal issues surrounding art authentication, and at Sotheby's Institute of Art regarding title and choice of law issues in international art theft cases. Charron is also a member of the New York City Bar Association Art Law Committee. He recently published an article in the New York Law Journal entitled: A Comity of Error: Choice of Law Rules in Stolen Art Cases.

Authentication in Art (AiA) comprises a group of prominent international art professionals who have come together to create a forum that can act as catalyst to promote best practices in art authentication. AiA has been created to provide leadership, shape dialogue, develop sound practice and liaise with the wider art community including international collectors, art historians, art market professionals, financial institutions, legal advisers, trust & estate practitioners and other stakeholders in the international art market.

For more information on the Authentication in Art Congress and to register, please visit: http://www.authenticationinart.org/