Ownership and accessibility of art.

Stockholm Centre for Commercial Law, together with Klubb Moderna and Nationalmusei Vänner, arranged a seminar on 2 April 2025: Ownership and accessibility of art.
The seminar was held in the Auditorium at Moderna Museet, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm.

When the art world meets the legal world, interesting and complicated issues arise. SCCL invited the local legal community together with the members of Klubb Moderna and Nationalmusei Vänner as well as other interested to a seminar exploring the interaction between art and law. A well-known conundrum is the question of looted art. How do we deal with claims relating to historic events, which are difficult to verify? What are the duties of the representatives of public institutions? How do you balance legal and moral obligations in a media storm? New technologies have given rise to new legal challenges in the art world. Internet and smart phones make it easy to spread images of art in physical form, without regard to the traditional intellectual property rights. Furthermore, art is now also produced in digital form, which fundamentally challenges the entire legal framework for protection of intellectual property. These and other questions were discussed at this seminar by leading scholars from different jurisdictions.

Speakers were: Professor Frantzeska Papadopolou Skarp, Associate Professor Emil Elgebrant, Law Faculty Stockholm University, Katarina Swanström, Head of Development at Moderna Museet, Matthias Weller, Mag.rer.publ. MAE, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Professor for Civil Law, Gilead Cooper K.C., Wilberforce Chambers, London, Massimo Sterpi, Partner, Head of IP/TMT and Art Law, Gianni & Origoni, Rome, Daniel Birnbaum, Professor of Philosophy at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and Artistic Director of Acute Art in London, 2010-2018 Director of Moderna Museet, Kristoffer Svenberg, Art Educator at Moderna Museet.