Art and Cultural Property Law
UK Guide 2025 : UK-wide
Band 2
About
Provided by Forsters
Forsters has a specialist team of lawyers drawn from across the firm to provide a full service to clients owning heritage property and works of art. The team have a broad range of clients including artists, galleries and auction houses, individual owners and collectors of art, owners of historic houses and their contents, whether individuals, trustees or charities in the UK or overseas.
They provide advice on:
- Tax and succession planning
- Structuring of artists' businesses, agency agreements and lending arrangements
- Formation of charities and art foundations
- Intellectual property rights including artists' resale rights
- Import and export of works of art
- Buying and selling art privately or at auction
- Conditional exemption and public access requirements, acceptance in lieu scheme, maintenance funds specific to heritage property
- Liability and insurance issues for trustee owners of heritage property and art
- Disputes regarding ownership, provenance and authenticity of art
- Litigation over transactions involving agents, auction houses and galleries.
Chambers Review
The art and cultural property practice at Forsters brings together lawyers from across the firm. It regularly advises collectors, galleries and auction houses, and is particularly notable for handling estate planning and commercial matters for artists.
Strengths
Provided by Chambers
"Forsters provide excellent service. They are extremely professional, with a high level of technical competence."
"Forsters has an excellent reputation in the private client sphere, and this extends to some more esoteric areas, such as art, cultural property and dealing with high net worth assets."
"Forsters provide excellent service. They are extremely professional, with a high level of technical competence."
"Forsters has an excellent reputation in the private client sphere, and this extends to some more esoteric areas, such as art, cultural property and dealing with high net worth assets."
Notable Practitioners
Catherine Hill leads the firm's art and cultural property practice and is an expert on advising living artists on tax and estate planning matters.
"Catherine Hill is an excellent private client lawyer with fantastic knowledge and experience of the art world. She inspires confidence."
"Catherine manages to be both technically competent and accessible for clients. She breaks things down in a way that clients understand."
"Catherine has an excellent reputation for dealing with contemporary artists and their estates. She is extremely knowledgeable in this space and has all the contacts that artists need in this respect."
Laura Neal is a senior associate in the firm's private client team. Her art and cultural property work includes advising artists on succession matters and high-value art loan agreements for collectors.
"Laura is someone that clients love working with. She is seriously technically brilliant but also approachable. Laura manages client relationships really well."