Philanthropy
&
International trade

 

Règles de l'art answers your questions on the Cultural Property

Export and Import Act, whether about gifts 

to cultural institutions or the import and export of cultural objects.

Representative mandates

Caillebotte File

• Chief counsel for the consortium of eight museums (Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, Remai Modern, Winnipeg Art Gallery and Beaverbrook Art Gallery) as well as the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, who intervened before the Federal Court of Appeal in a file pertaining to the interpretation of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act. The file had a financial impact amounting to tens of millions of dollars annually on Canadian cultural institutions’ acquisitions (Canada (Attorney General) v. Heffel Gallery Limited et al., 2019 FCA 82).

For more information on the case, see:

Chris Hannay, “Worried about donation chill, museums seek to join court fight”, The Globe and Mail (November 20, 2018) [link]

Leah Sandals, “Unprecedented Art-Law Appeal Heads to Court”, CanadianArt (February 7, 2019). [link]

Hadani Ditmars, “Contested export of a Caillebotte painting raises questions about Canadian cultural law”, The Art Newspaper (June 29, 2019). [link]

• Witness, with Moira McCaffrey, president of the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization, before the Standing Committee on Finance of the federal House of Commons for Bill C-97, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget, regarding the modifications to the tax regime pertaining to the donation of cultural objects to Canadian cultural institutions.

Philanthropy

• Advised a museum regarding its philanthropy policy.

• Advised collectors regarding gifts to cultural institutions.

Conferences

• « UNESCO 1970 au Canada : du trafic des biens culturels aux transformations du monde muséal » presented jointly with Yves Bergeron during Université Laval’s summer school’s Protéger et valoriser les patrimoines, la diversité culturelle et la créativité : une approche basée sur les droits de la personne. (May 17, 2023).

• "Caillebotte and the Cultural Property Export and Import Act", American Bar Association, Art & cultural Heritage Committee (January 19, 2023).

• “Adaptation, altération ou déformation? La convention UNESCO 1970 au Canada” presented during the conference "(Legal) adaptations", McGill Graduate Law Conference (May 6, 2022).

• “The export of cultural objects from Canada” presented during the seminar Exporting Art Seminar organised by the Institute of Art & Law in London (February 15, 2022).

• “The implementation of UNESCO 1970 in Canada: Crimes, export restrictions and Museum Policy” presented during the colloquium “Cultural Heritage from the Midst of War to the Brink of Peace” organized by La Sapienza, McGill University and the Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della cooperazione internazionale in Rome (December 16, 2021).

• “Chagall, Caillebotte, Carr et les tribulations de la Loi sur l’exportation et l’importation des biens culturels”, conference on the Cultural Property Export and Import Act presented at the Centre de recherche en droit public, Faculty of Law, Université de Montréal (November 2020). [link]

• "La Loi sur l’exportation et l’importation des biens culturels et l’écosystème des musées" presented during a seminar organized by the Chaire de recherche sur la gouvernance des musées et le droit de la culture (November 19, 2020).

• “Artwork on Trial: Appeal of the Caillebotte Case” presented before the annual congress of the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization (June 2019).

• “Carthago defedenda est: Marché de l’art et numérique”, conference presented during the colloquium "Le droit à l’épreuve du numérique", Faculty of Law, Université de Montréal (May 2018).

Interviews

• Leah Sandals, “Unprecedented Art-Law Appeal Heads to Court”, Canadian Art (February 7, 2019). [link]

• Hadani Ditmars, “Contested export of a Caillebotte painting raises questions about Canadian cultural law”, The Art Newspaper (June 29, 2019). [link]

• Interview on the international trade of artworks during the pandemic during the series for the Comité des affaires internationales and the Comité des arts, Université de Montréal's Faculty of Law (December 2020 / January 2021) [audio | video]

• Interview on the contested sale of a Toutankhamon statuette: L’heure du monde, Ici Première (July 9, 2019).