Monthly Articles

A New French Bill Could Change How Looted Art Gets Returned by Jenny Feldman

French senators have unanimously approved a bill to streamline the restitution of colonial-era artworks looted between 1815 and 1972, moving President Emmanuel Macron’s long-standing diplomatic agenda closer to a permanent legal reality. By removing the “cumbersome” requirement for a separate parliamentary vote for every individual object, the legislation aims to facilitate the return of tens of thousands of artifacts to former colonies like Benin, Mali, and Algeria while framing the move as a historical acknowledgment rather than a total emptying of French museums. The bill now awaits a final vote in the National Assembly, marking a shift from symbolic gestures toward a standardized framework for repairing cultural relations with Africa

South Africa Pulls Out of Venice Biennale After Censorship Battle

For the first time since 2011, South Africa will have no pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Artist Gabrielle Goliath had been unanimously chosen by an independent committee to represent the country with a new version of her long-running project Elegy, a performance series that honors women and queer people killed by violence in South Africa and beyond. The controversy started when Goliath planned to expand the piece to include a tribute to Hiba Abu Nada, a Palestinian poet killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2023. Culture minister Gayton McKenzie called the project “highly divisive,” demanded changes, and when Goliath refused, he pulled the plug entirely, terminating the ministry’s contract with the nonprofit organizing the pavilion just days before the Biennale’s submission deadline. Goliath and her curator Ingrid Masondo took the government to court, arguing McKenzie had no authority to override the selection committee and that canceling the exhibition violated her constitutional right to free expression. The high court dismissed the case without giving any reasoning and ordered Goliath to pay the government’s legal costs, which her team described as both shocking and punitive. Goliath has said she plans to appeal and may still find a way to present Elegy independently in Venice this spring.

Epstein Files Fallout Reaches the Art World

The DOJ just dropped roughly three million pages of new Epstein documents, and the art world is not escaping unscathed. Thomas Pritzker, who chaired the board of the Art Institute of Chicago for years, resigned from his role as executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels in mid-February, saying he’d exercised “terrible judgment” in staying close to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Pritzker, a major collector who’s appeared on the ARTnews top 200 list, was named years ago in a deposition by Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre. Across the Atlantic, former French culture minister Jack Lang stepped down from running the Arab World Institute in Paris after his name showed up hundreds of times in the latest files. French authorities have since raided the institute. Then there’s David Ross, former Whitney Museum director and until recently the head of the MFA program at SVA, who resigned after emails surfaced showing him joking about Epstein’s jail time and enthusiastically responding to Epstein’s pitch for an exhibit called “Statutory” featuring teenagers. Leon Black’s ties to Epstein also continue to deepen, with new documents revealing just how much Epstein was involved in managing Black’s billion-dollar art holdings through complex financial structures. What the latest files reveal isn’t necessarily surprising, but the sheer volume of documentation is hard to ignore. With journalists and investigators still working through millions of pages, more names and connections will almost certainly surface in the months ahead.

Art in the City (Current and Upcoming Exhibitions)

The Seventh Aim Biennial: Forms of Connection at Bronx Museum (on view till June 29, 2026)

Carol Brove at the Guggenheim Museum (opens March 5- August 2, 2026)

New Humans: Memories of the Future at the New Museum (opens March 21, 2026)

Art around the world (Upcoming Exhibitions)

Tracy Emin A Second Life at Tate Modern (opens February 27 – August 31, 2026)

Renoir and Love, A Joyful modernity (1865-1885) at Musee de Orsay (opens March 17^th to July 19^th, 2026)

Mariko Mori at Moria Art Museum (opens October 31, 2026 to March 28, 2027)

FALS Upcoming Events

Please join us on March 4, 2026, for an Art Law Career Panel!

Guest speakers:

• Jason Pollack, Senior Vice President – General Counsel, Americas at Christie’s
• Amy Lamberti, Senior Associate General Counsel at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Christopher Robinson, Of Counsel at ROTTENBERG, LIPMAN, RICH, P.C.
• Jane Pakenham, General Counsel of the Calder Foundation.  

(Also, for 1L students, we understand there is a plenary session for Leg Reg at 4PM. As our event will start approximately at 5:15 pm – please do join us after the plenary session!)

RSVP link here

Tour of the Calder Foundation: Monday, March 16 at 10:30am 

FALS has arranged for a tour of the Calder Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization founded in 1987 by Alexander S. C. Rower and the Calder family, dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, preserving, and interpreting the art and archives of Alexander Calder. The tour will be led by: 

• the Foundation’s president and Calder’s grandson, Sandy Rower, and 
• the Foundation’s general counsel, Jane Pakenham. 

The Foundation is located at 207 W 25th Street, floor 12, New York, NY 10001 (about a 20-minute subway ride from Fordham).

RSVP link here