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The Bay Area is where the next chapter of art law is being written. The Berkeley Art, Law, and Finance Project puts you at the center of it.
The Project is launching its inaugural Intensive Seminar — four days of seminar sessions and site visits across the Bay Area for attorneys, museum professionals, collectors, advisors, artists, and finance professionals ready to engage with the forces transforming art markets.
📅 November 30 - December 3, 2026
📍 UC Berkeley Law & Bay Area Institutions
👥 30 Participants Only
Led by Professor Sonia K. Katyal, Roger J. Traynor Distinguished Chair at UC Berkeley and one of the nation's leading scholars on intellectual property, identity, and cultural heritage — recently named one of the top 25 most-cited legal scholars in the country.
FOUR DAYS. FOUR FRONTIERS.
🖼️ Day 1 — Art Law and Cultural Property
How does a 14th-century altarpiece move from a Tuscan church to a San Francisco museum — and what laws govern that journey? International frameworks, gallery economics, and auction dynamics. Exhibition tour at BAMPFA.
💼 Day 2 — Transactions, Business Law, and Finance
Follow the deal from handshake to dispute: consignment, title, authenticity, and due diligence — then estate planning, tax strategy, and art-secured lending. Gallery visit at Minnesota Street Project.
🔍 Day 3 — Provenance, Restitution, and Repatriation
Every artwork carries a history — sometimes including theft, looting, or contested ownership. Nazi-era claims, NAGPRA compliance, and the ethics of institutional collecting. Exhibition tour at the Asian Art Museum.
🤖 Day 4 — Technology, IP, and the Future
The technologies transforming art are outpacing the law. AI-generated art and the landmark litigation it has sparked, blockchain provenance, smart contracts, and digital royalty structures. Visit to a Bay Area tech company (to be announced Summer 2026).
Every day opens with a Practitioner Roundtable and closes at a leading Bay Area institution. The detailed seminar agenda and full faculty roster will be published later this summer.
WHAT YOU’LL TAKE HOME
✅ MASTERY
A working command of AI copyright litigation — including Andersen v. Stability AI, now in discovery in San Francisco federal court with trial set for spring 2027 — sufficient to advise a client, brief a board, or inform your own creative practice
✅ TOOLS
The deal points and due diligence frameworks practitioners actually use — not just theory, but the tools you’ll reach for on Monday morning
✅ PROXIMITY
Firsthand exposure to NAGPRA repatriation and digital provenance infrastructure — at the institutions where these questions are being decided right now
✅ CONNECTIONS
A cross-professional network of attorneys, museum leaders, collectors, advisors, and artists — the kind of room that rarely exists, built over four days of shared sessions, site visits, and roundtables
✅ A Berkeley Law Certificate of Participation · CA MCLE offered
WHY HERE 🌉
New York has the biggest art market. London dominates Old Masters. But the Bay Area is where the legal future of the art world is being shaped — and contested.
Andersen v. Stability AI is in litigation blocks from Midjourney’s headquarters. Berkeley’s Hearst Museum is navigating some of the most complex repatriation cases under NAGPRA. Adobe is building provenance infrastructure in San Jose. The hardest questions in art law today are open — and this is where they’re being answered.
No other program puts you this close to the litigation, regulation, and innovation defining what comes next.
WHO SHOULD APPLY
Attorneys, museum professionals, collectors, art advisors, wealth planners, finance professionals, artists, and students. No art law specialization required — what matters is professional experience and curiosity about the forces reshaping the art world.
This is the inaugural cohort. As a participant, you become a founding member of the Berkeley Art, Law, and Finance network — with access to the annual symposium, virtual roundtables, an alumni directory, and priority registration for future programs.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Apply early — the cohort is capped at 30.
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