Art disputes and how to avoid them

Sharon Hecker

Dr. Sharon Hecker (B.A. Yale University, Ph.D. U.C., Berkeley) is an art historian and curator. She is a leading authority on modern and contemporary Italian sculpture, especially the works of the sculptor Medardo Rosso. She is a founding member of the International Catalogue Raisonné Association (ICRA) and founder of The Hecker Standard®, an approach for due diligence for art that combines connoisseurship, provenance research and scientific analysis. Dr. Hecker has authored over 50 publication and curated exhibitions at the Harvard University Art Museums, Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in London. Her research includes interactions between art-historical scholarship, the market, and art law related to questions of authenticity. She is in charge of the Expert Witness Pool selection for the Court of Arbitration for Art (CAfA).

Anne-Laure Bandle

Anne Laure Bandle is an attorney-at-law at the lawfim Borel & Barbey in Geneva where she advises clients in matters related to works of art, copyright, contracts, estate planning, foundations and trusts.

Anne Laure is a lecturer in copyright, art and entertainment law at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, a lecturer in art and philanthropy at the University of Geneva and a guest lecturer in cultural heritage and art law at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Moreover, Anne Laure is the director of the Art Law Foundation, a foundation that aims to promote and coordinate the work and research in the field of art law. In particular, it supports the research and teaching activities of the Art-Law Centre.

Anne Laure is a member of the Task Force of the Responsible Art Market Initiative (RAM), the Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA) executive committee, the Professional Advisors to the International Art Market (PAIAM) board as well as of the executive committee of the Musée de l’Elysée patrons club.

She holds a PhD in law from the University of Geneva. It deals with the sale of misattributed artworks and antiques at auction and is published with Edward Elgar Publishing.

Since 2015, Anne Laure writes a column for the newspaper Le Temps on the art market. She is a regular speaker at international conferences and frequently publishes on matters related to her fields of expertise.

Anne Laure has been recognized as an expert in the field of art and cultural heritage law by Chambers and Partners 2019 and 2020.

Davina Given

Davina Given is an experienced commercial litigator at RPC in London, where she co-leads the arts & cultural property law practice. She is a specialist in art disputes and her practice encompasses disputes on provenance, attribution and authenticity, ownership, the duties of auctioneers, agents and advisers, as well as criminal issues arising in the art market, such as money laundering. She frequently acts for art dealers and auction houses. Davina is a member of the International Bar Association's Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee and of Professional Advisers to the International Art Market (PAIAM).

Steve Schindler

Steven R. Schindler is one of the founding partners of Schindler Cohen & Hochman LLP. Twenty-four years after it was founded, SCH continues to earn its reputation as one of the City’s outstanding litigation and art law boutiques. As a senior member of the firm’s litigation practice, Steve represents a broad range of clients in state and federal courts and arbitrations throughout the nation, and works closely with foreign law firms in complex transnational litigation. Steve also heads SCH’s Art Law Group. This practice area, which continues to grow steadily, combines SCH’s formidable litigation expertise with a deep knowledge of the art market and its specific legal issues. Steve regularly advises art galleries, other art related businesses, collectors, artists, and not-for-profit corporations in the art space on transactional matters, such as the sale and acquisition of art and their relationships with dealers, banks and auction houses, and has litigated cases involving the authenticity, title, provenance and appraisals of art.

Steve is on the faculty of NYU’s Steinhardt School where he teaches art law. He was the Chair of the Art Law Committee of The Bar Association of the City of New York from 2016-2019, and remains an active member of that committee, is the Regional Representative North America of the IBA’s Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee, and the co-president of the Board of Artists Space. Steve often speaks on legal and industry sponsored panels relating to current topics in art law, and is the author of numerous articles on art law. He was appointed to the original Arbitration and Mediation pools of CAfA in January 2020 and has been recognized by Chambers as a notable practitioner for Art and Cultural Property Law in the U.S. Steve is the co-host of The Art Law Podcast.