Services

We Research...

Art Title Advisors knows the art world … Art Title Advisors will examine public and private databases, and will contact its network of art world and law enforcement sources to determine whether a work may have been stolen. Representative sources contacted may include dealers and galleries, auction houses, academic institutions, museums that have prominent collections of a similar type, provenance committees and other artist-specific authorities, government officials, investigators, and other knowledgeable resources. Art Title Advisors can help you avoid purchasing previously stolen art or help protect art that you have already collected.

We Document...

Art Title Advisors offers a comprehensive, customized Ownership Rights Protection^sm Report. Based upon its research, Art Title Advisors will issue a customized Ownership Rights Protection^sm Report, which records and reveals the results of its due diligence on its clients’ behalf.

So You Can Defend.

In the event of a title dispute, Art Title Advisors gives you a unique advantage. While it is true that a theft spoils title, such that one cannot take good title from a thief, there is more to the legal equation of ownership than a mere broken link in the chain of title. Courts in the United States that have considered art title disputes have given due weight to the passage of time. When years have past passed since a theft or sale under duress, courts will ask what the theft victim did in an effort to locate his or her stolen property during the intervening years. Was an effort made to notify law enforcement and to the place the art world on notice of the theft? On the other hand, courts will ask of the current owner what effort he or she made to avoid purchasing stolen property; that is to say, what the collector did by way of due diligence. After all, with so much stolen art about, good intentions and naiveté will not trump the valid ownership claim of a theft victim.

Overall, courts have come to see two victims in the aftermath of art theft: the prior owner and the good faith / innocent purchaser. To resolve this legal dilemma, courts “balance the equities” between the two. If a theft victim was relatively passive and as a result a subsequent collector who did his or her homework found no reason to question title, the equities are seen to favor the collector. In this situation, the previous owner’s claim to title will yield to the ownership rights of the subsequent collector, who will be deemed to have good title from that point forward. However, on the same facts, a lax collector – i.e. one who neglected title due diligence -- will most likely find a court favoring the equities of the previous owner. This can lead to financial hardship and disappointment, to state the matter somewhat mildly.

In this way one can see the courts helping those who help themselves. A collector who can show that he or she took reasonable care to assure clear title will have a distinct advantage. The Ownership Rights Protection^sm Report is the source of that advantage. Without documented due diligence, a collector has few defenses against the original owner in the event of an art title dispute.