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School of Law

Art, Crime and Criminals: Painting Fresh Pictures of Art Theft, Fraud and Plunder

16 January 2017

Time: 9:30am - 6:00pm
Venue: Royal United Services Institute for Defence & Security Studies (RUSI), 61 Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET

Second Workshop of the AHRC Network Grant Series on 'Art, Crime and Criminals: Painting Fresh Pictures of Art Theft, Fraud and Plunder'.

Organised by Professor Duncan Chappell, Dr Saskia Hufnagel and Ms Marissa Marjos.

Following the success of the first workshop, this second workshop aims specifically at discussions in the area of art fraud and forgeries. The following (third) workshop will focus on looting and iconoclasm (June 2017, Berlin, Ministry of Finance).

All workshops will be structured around a number of presentations by prominent actors in the field, but the main parts are discussions around the topic between all participants.

The aim of the workshop series is to encourage interdisciplinary research, cross-jurisdictional sharing of knowledge and exchange of ideas between academics, practitioners and policy makers. Practitioners will be invited from various backgrounds, such as, police, customs, museums, galleries, auction houses, dealerships, insurance companies, art authenticators, forensic scientists, private security companies etc.

The proposed network not only aims at bringing the different players together, but also establishes a communication platform that will ensure their engagement beyond the three workshops.  Organisations invited to the 2nd workshop include: The Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA), Metropolitan Police, German Police (LKA Berlin), Hong Kong Police, Europol, Authenticators and Art Experts, The Art Loss Register, Art Recovery International, Private Policing Sector, Victoria and Albert Museum (Security), National Gallery, Historic England, Artists/Forgers, Insurance Sector, Journalists, Association of Chiefs of Police, MPs, Academics from various disciplines, Art Dealers and many more.

Workshop 2 will focus specifically on the subject area of art fraud and forgery. In an international art market that is currently reaching record levels of pricing and unprecedented levels of speculative sales and investment the incentives for art fraud and forgery have never been higher. Among questions to be addressed will be:

  • What is the prevalence of this type of crime?
  • Who are the principal participants?
  • To what extent are existing regulatory mechanisms effective?
  • Is self-regulation of the art market the way forward?
  • How are forgeries placed on the market?
  • What scientific measures can be taken to better protect the art market?
  • How should identified fraudulent works of art be dealt with?
  • How can the legal and financial risks in authenticating works of art be mitigated?

See presentations from the first workshop.

Directions

For directions to the venue, please refer to the map.

How to book

This event is free but prior booking is required. Register online via Eventbrite.

Contact

For more information on this event, please email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk.


Photography, video and audio recording

School of Law events may be photographed or video and audio recorded. These materials will be used for internal and external promotional purposes only by Queen Mary University of London. If you object to appearing in the photographs, please let our photographer know on the day. Alternatively you can email lawevents@qmul.ac.uk in advance of the event that you are attending.

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