Museum Law

From one of America’s foremost experts in museum and cultural heritage law, here is a comprehensive guide to both U.S. and international laws and conventions affecting museums, art galleries, natural and historic heritage, and other cultural organizations. This authoritative guide: begins naturally with laws protecting art and artists (include artists’ freedom of expression, invasion of privacy, right of publicity, and trade laws), moves on to protection of artists’ property rights through copyright laws, and then goes into international laws and conventions (with full coverage of the Hugue Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import and Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and the UNIDROIT Convention on the International Return of Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects), features full coverage of U.S. laws protecting cultural heritage such as the Antiquities Act, the Historic Sites Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Film Preservation, State Preservation Acts, and the National Stolen Properties Act includes detailed coverage of U.S. laws protecting our natural heritage such as the Lacey Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act features much needed current coverage of laws affecting the operation of museums, ranging from organizational structure and accounting to governance and use of guards and volunteers includes invaluable details of laws related to museum collections, including: purchases loans gifts deaccessioning detailed coverage of laws and regulations governing the tax-exempt status for museums, including how to fill out required forms unprecedented attention to museums’ unrelated business taxable income from such increasingly common activities as gifts shops, snack bars, travel tours, and sponsorships. No museum, cultural heritage site, or historical site can afford to be without this authoritative guide.

Hailed when it was first published in 1985 as the bible of U.S. collections management, A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections offers the only comprehensive discussion of the legal questions faced by museums regarding collections. This revised and expanded third edition addresses the many legal developments—including a comprehensive discussion of stolen art and the international movement of cultural property, recent developments in copyright, and the effects of burgeoning electronic uses—that have occurred during the past twenty-five years. An authorative, go-to book for any museum professional, Legal Primer offers detailed explanations of the law, suggestions for preventing legal problems, and numerous case studies of lawsuits involving museum collections.

Wondering what a museum director actually does? About to start your first director's job? Looking for guidance in starting up a museum or working with a museum director? Hugh Genoways, Lynne Ireland, and Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko have taken the mystery out and put common sense and good guidance in. Learn about everything from budgets and strategic planning to human resources and facilities management to collections and programming. They also help you tackle legal documents, legal and ethical issues, and challenges for today's 2.0 world. Case studies and exercises throughout help you review and practice what you are learning, and their extensive references will be a welcome resource.

Presented in an easily digestible format, this go-to desktop reference guide provides explanations and clarifications on a variety of legal issues and concerns facing today’s museum professional in over 200 plain-language dictionary entries. Alphabetized and extensively cross-referenced, this text will provide a quick go-to when a general introduction to or refresher of a concept is needed on the go, including: Intellectual property issues, including copyright, trademarks, and fair use Corporate issues, including nonprofit status and tax-exemption Governance issues, including boards of trustees and fiduciary duties The second edition adds over 40 new dictionary entries that address emerging issues in the field such as the 2019 FASB update and direct care of collections, plus new topics such as marital property and business structures. The text is divided into three main sections: In the first, over forty common acronyms and symbols are explained, and over twenty statutes impacted museum work are listed, with common names or acronyms plus citations provided. In the second, over 200 terms are concisely defined and situated specifically in relation to the day-to-day work of the museum professional, each cross-referenced to related definitions. In the third, ten additional topics are developed in depth, allowing the subtleties and complications to be examined and explained in an accessible plain-language manner. Further, the supplemental, in-focus section includes new chapters on museum deaccessioning and disposal, business structures, and worker classification and independent contractors in addition to updated chapters on topics ranging from intellectual property to business formation, tax-exempt status, and worker classification. Written by a past museum director with legal training, this reference book is intended to be kept within arm’s reach at a desk and be the first stop for a professional whenever a question arises.

"The Idea of a Human Rights Museum" is the first book to examine the formation of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and to situate the museum within the context of the international proliferation of such institutions. Sixteen essays consider the wider political, cultural and architectural contexts within which the museum physically and conceptually evolved drawing comparisons between the CMHR and institutions elsewhere in the world that emphasize human rights and social justice. This collection brings together authors from diverse fields—law, cultural studies, museum studies, sociology, history, political science, and literature—to critically assess the potentials and pitfalls of human rights education through “ideas” museums. Accessible, engaging, and informative, the collection’s essays will encourage museum-goers to think more deeply about the content of human rights exhibits. The Idea of a Human Rights Museum is the first title in the University of Manitoba Press’s Human Rights and Social Justice Series. This series publishes work that explores the quest for social justice and the basic rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled, including civil, political, economic, social, collective, and cultural rights.

Museums are multifaceted institutions that reach across all disciplines and encounter a complex range of legal questions. Experts in museum and art law join forces in this essay-format volume. These unique, nonprofit cultural organizations face a myriad of legal concerns as they launch into the twenty-first century and will continue to require specific guidance. From intellectual property law to navigating waters of social media, de-accessioning concerns to governance law, copyright, and rights and reproduction questions to issues of public domain and public trust, The Legal Guide for Museum Professionals seeks to provide answers and courses of action for museums of all disciplines. This book will assist professionals in determining when to seek professional legal counsel and when to educate themselves and proceed on their own. The book was inspired by a panel of experts who have presented at numerous regional and national conferences for museum professionals are especially practiced at providing insight into current legal concerns, including: Gil Whittemore Esq. of Rath, Young and Pignatelli, P.C. and former Chair of the American Bar Association’s Museum Law Committee; Katherine E. Lewis Esq. Chair of the American Bar Association’s Museum Law Committee and practicing New York attorney; Mark S. Gold Esq. practicing attorney in Williamstown, MA with the firm of Parese, Sabin, Smith & Gold LLP who has written and edited extensively on all aspects of museum and art law. All three contributed to this volume.