About the Practice
Smith Gambrell & Russell’s Art Practice is multidisciplinary at its core, as the myriad of legal issues that are unique to the art world also permeate other areas of law, whether our clients require assistance with transactional, controversy or tax matters. Our practitioners routinely assist burgeoning and established artists, wealthy and novice private and institutional collectors, investors, galleries, dealers and auction houses and museums. SGR is uniquely positioned, with its broad array of practice groups and skilled attorneys, to be a one stop shop for virtually every legal aspect one can encounter as part of the global art scene.
With a practical and outcome oriented approach at the core of every engagement, our skilled transactional, litigation and tax practitioners advise on:
- All aspects of sale, consignment, auctioning, acquisition, and lending of art, including purchases and sales of art from galleries and established or up and coming artists, free trade zone warehouse arrangements, counseling clients in contracting with auction houses.
- Art and securities, including advising on novel technologies, such as blockchain-based offerings of fractional ownership interests (“tokens”) in artworks.
- Art and real estate, whether the matter involves negotiation of a lease for a gallery or studio, advising on issues relating to placement (indoor and outdoor) of artworks within real estate developments or the construction or renovation of space for artwork.
- Counseling domestic and foreign nonprofit organizations and institution (public charities and public and private foundations) with respect to governance, loans, grants, acquisitions, and installation projects.
- Art and employment, including advising galleries and artists on a broad array of transactional and litigation employment matters and benefits.
- All aspects of controversies relating to art issues, from pre-litigation and pre-arbitration matters to representation of clients in art related disputes, whether these stem from ownership controversies, copyright disputes or disputes between artists and galleries.
- Broad array of copyright issues relating to the use, exploitation and protection of artworks by artists, commercial enterprises and other stakeholders.
- Art and estate planning, including crafting tax efficient strategies relating to holding and gifting artworks domestically and cross-border, and representing artists and their estates.
- Art as collateral in lending with private and institutional lenders.
In addition to professional endeavors, our attorneys share a personal passion and a deep commitment for the arts, some even pursuing their own personal artistic activities. Some of the members of our art practice group hold art history degrees and sit on boards of directors of art related not for profit organizations, including Tel Aviv Museum American Friends, America Israel Cultural Foundation. Our attorneys have worked with international Holocaust claims resolution organizations (Claims Conference) with respect to repatriating art looted by the Nazis in World War II, provided pro bono services to artists through, among others, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and are members in such organizations as the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) and Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP).
