Greetings!

🔥 What a month! The art world is reeling from back-to-back heists, landmark legal battles, and seismic policy shifts that are reshaping how we protect, own, and value cultural heritage.

First, in case you missed it: We had the pleasure of hosting Verso Law partners Amy Parigi and Ryan Bricker for a fascinating deep-dive into their work on the landmark Supreme Court case Jack Daniel's v. VIP Products—a pivotal ruling that redefined the boundaries between trademark rights and parody protection. Professor Sonia Katyal's moderation brought out insights you won't find anywhere else. Catch the highlights here>

📅 Don't miss these exclusive webinars:

🎨 Legal Personhood for Artwork | Dec 18 @ 10:00 AM PT

Can art own itself? The answer might surprise you.

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🎨 Art Markets & the UBS Wealth Report | Jan 15 @ 10:00 AM PT

Where the smart money is moving in 2026.

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This month we cover the $102M Louvre heist, Oakland Museum theft, Getty's AI lawsuit loss, Vatican's Indigenous artifact returns, Trump's arts commission firing, the fight to save New Deal murals, fractional ownership democratizing art, and more.

Let's dive in.

Delia Violante

Founding Director of the Berkeley Art, Law, and Finance Project

Berkeley Center for Law and Business

Sarah Sense - Worcester Bear, 40 x 60 inches
 Woven archival inkjet prints on Hahnemuhle bamboo paper and Hahnemuhle rice paper, tape.

Academic Corner

ANGELA R. RILEY | UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES SCHOOL OF LAW

Professor Riley from UCLA Law examines how tribal law has become a critical tool in advancing Native self-determination and good governance across Indian country. Some key areas of innovation include the incorporation of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into tribal legal systems and the rapid expansion of tribal laws protecting cultural property. Drawing from extensive empirical research, the article highlights how tribes are crafting laws that reflect their values, traditions, and sovereignty, aiming towards a broader movement of the revitalization of tribal governance and the assertion of Indigenous legal authority. Read more>

Hot off the Blog...


ROBIN WILLSCHEIDT | BERKELEY ART, LAW, AND FINANCE PROJECT

Robin Willscheidt explores how Hudson's Bay Company's 2025 bankruptcy auction of 4,000 artifacts threatens Indigenous cultural patrimony, arguing that North American bankruptcy laws must be reformed to protect sacred objects from being sold as mere financial assets without Indigenous consultation. Read more>

FELICIA CAPONIGRI | MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL

Beyond the for-profit fashion market valuing Armani as vintage, his work represents cultural heritage. His unique approach to controlling his fashion legacy—navigating between intellectual property and cultural heritage law—may be his greatest contribution to fashion law. Read more>

PARIS QUETZAL SISTILLI | COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY/SCIENCES PO PARIS

Beyond the staggering human impact, Sudan's civil war has unleashed an assault on the nation's cultural heritage. The targeting of cultural sites has spurred safeguarding efforts led by Ali Nour, for whom the war represents a personal reckoning with the fragility of the heritage he's dedicated his career to preserving. Read more>

ESSENTIAL READS

Getty Loses AI Lawsuit

REUTERS

Getty Images largely lost its UK lawsuit against Stability AI, winning only narrow trademark claims about watermarks while losing major copyright infringement arguments after dropping key parts mid-trial. The ruling exposes gaps in UK copyright law for AI training and leaves unresolved whether training AI models on copyrighted works constitutes infringement. Read more>

Vatican Returns Sacred Items

THE CATHOLIC REGISTER

The Vatican will return artifacts from its Anima Mundi ethnological museum to Indigenous communities in Canada by the end of the year. The return is being carried out to honor the stated wishes of the late Pope Francis following a pilgrimage to Rome of Indigenous delegations in 2022. Read more>

$102M Louvre Heist

ARTNET

Thieves stole $102 million in imperial jewelry from the Louvre in 7 minutes on October 19. Four suspects were charged but the jewels remain missing, prompting a $92 million security overhaul—the museum's worst breach since the 1911 Mona Lisa theft. Read more>

Oakland Museum Looted

AP

Thieves stole over 1,000 items from Oakland Museum's storage on October 15, including Native American baskets and metalwork jewelry. Police and FBI are investigating while asking the public to watch for items at flea markets and resale sites. Read more>

Picasso Found, Dreams Dashed

NYT

A Picasso went missing during transport to Granada, sparking excitement in Deifontes where the van had stopped. Police found it never left Madrid—a woman in the same building had accidentally taken it home, ending the town's brief moment of fame. Read more>

Book Alert: The Grave Robber

HARPER COLLINS FOCUS

FBI investigator Tim Carpenter details the pursuit of a grave robber who stole 42,000+ artifacts and 500 ancestral remains over five decades. The book follows the massive investigation and complex repatriation effort to return sacred objects to Native American tribes and other communities, becoming a story of cultural justice and healing. Read more>

Trump Fires Arts Commission

WSJ

Trump fired all Commission of Fine Arts members, replacing them with loyalists as he advances major projects including a $350 million White House ballroom twice the size of the main building and a proposed Lincoln Memorial arch. Read more>

New Deal Murals Under Threat

THE HILL

The GSA plans to sell the 1939 Cohen Federal Building in D.C., risking destruction of irreplaceable New Deal murals by Shahn, Guston, and Fogel painted directly on its walls. The authors urge alternatives like modernization or museum conversion to preserve these publicly-owned artworks rather than privatizing America's cultural heritage. Read more>

Tariff Turmoil

THE ART NEWSPAPER

New Trump-era tariffs have imposed sudden 25% duties on Chinese antiques and collectibles, sending shockwaves through the U.S. decorative arts market. The unannounced policy shift is disrupting sales and trade relationships, with experts warning of lasting damage to cultural exchange and market stability. Read more>

Report Alert: Global Wealth Report 2025

UBS

The Global Wealth Report is out now, covering how the world is getting progressively richer, which regions and markets are set to benefit, which of the markets have the most millionaires, and how the great horizontal and vertical wealth transfer might look in practice in key global markets. Read more>

Can Markets Democratize Art?

THE INSTITUTE OF ART & LAW

The Leiden Collection of artworks by Dutch masters plans to undertake an IPO in the first half of 2026, allowing ordinary investors to participate in the ownership of pieces with million-dollar price tags. Martina Bosi asks whether splitting ownership truly democratizes art or just financializes it, questioning whether market innovation can genuinely bridge art and accessibility. Read more>

Sotheby's Paris Sets Records

ARTNEWS

Sotheby's Paris achieved record €89.7 million ($104M) during Art Basel week, with Modigliani's "Elvire en buste" selling for €27 million—their highest-ever price. Magritte's "La Magie Noire," held by a WWII resistance heroine's family for nearly a century, fetched €10.7 million. Read more>

Digital Museum for Stolen Art

UNESCO

UNESCO created the first Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects using 3D/VR to display items from INTERPOL's database, designed by Francis Kéré as a baobab tree. The platform educates about illicit trafficking and celebrates successful restitutions, evolving as new thefts occur and recoveries happen. Read more>

3000 Quilts to BAMPFA

ARTNET

After six years, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is finally shining a spotlight on the gift of over 3,000 African American quilts it received from the late collector Eli Leon in 2019—roughly a quarter are from the South, made prior to 1950 and the rest are from the Bay Area. Read more>

Art Viewing Boosts Health

ARTNET

A new study indicates that art has immediate and clear positive effects on our health, reducing stress hormones. It’s the first study to capture real-time benefits of looking at art: immediate and measurable positive health results. Read more>

Meet the Artist

SARAH SENSE

Sarah Sense, an artist from Sacramento, earned her BFA from California State University, Chico, and her MFA from Parsons, The New School for Design. As curator and director of the American Indian Community House Gallery, she catalogued the gallery’s thirty-year history. Since 2004, Sense has practiced photo-weaving, blending traditional Chitimacha and Choctaw basket techniques. After moving to South America in 2010, her work expanded to include travel journals, landscape photography, and family archives that uncover Indigenous histories. Now a British Library Eccles Centre Fellow, she creates large-scale wall weavings from archival maps and documents, exploring colonial impacts on climate and reasserting Indigeneity through traditional patterns. Learn more>

Please note that some articles listed may be subject to a paywall.

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