Page 61 - AC-3-1

Arts & Communication

ARTICLE
Legal analysis of the risks in art exhibition

contracts from the perspective of
international law

Chen Zhou*

Department of Arts Administration, School of Arts Administration and Education, Central Academy
of Fine Arts, Beijing, China
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Re-globalization: Practices from the Art Market)

Abstract

International art exhibitions can lead to disputes between multiple parties due to
their transnational and complex nature, unlike domestic art exhibitions. The “Kiefer”
Chinese painting exhibition triggered a series of controversies that should not be
overlooked. Professionals in the art industry should reflect on these controversies to
gain insights and promote the development of the field. This article focuses on the
“Kiefer” incident to discuss the major risk points in the international art exhibition
process. The article is divided into three parts. The first part concerns the selection
and application of the law, where parties must carefully consider which laws and
*Corresponding author: international rules to apply. The second part addresses the nature of the contract and
Chen Zhou
(285395152@qq.com) liability, examining how the applicable law affects the legal nature of the contract
and the obligations of the parties involved. The third part deals with unauthorized
Citation: Zhou C. Legal analysis of
the risks in art exhibition contracts disposition and judicial seizure, focusing on issues of good faith acquisition when
from the perspective of international a party receiving artwork illegally disposes of it without the owner’s permission, as
law. Arts & Communication. well as the problem of judicial seizure and immunity from judicial seizure of artworks
2025;3(1):2881.
doi: 10.36922/ac.2881 (including cultural relics) involved in litigation.
Received: February 4, 2024
Keywords: Conflict of laws; Applicable law; Jurisdiction of courts; Immunity from judicial
1st revised: April 28, 2024
seizure
2nd revised: June 19, 2024
Accepted: June 24, 2024
Published online: September 30, 1. Introduction
2024
Copyright:© 2024 Author(s). In August 2020, the 4-year “Kiefer” storm finally ended when the paintings of German
1
This is an Open-Access article artist Anselm Kiefer safely arrived in Germany. Looking back on the entire incident, the
distributed under the terms absence of a written contract was one of the key factors that complicated the resolution
of the Creative Commons
AttributionNoncommercial License, process. The relevant party leaders agreed on the exhibition tour in various parts of
permitting all non-commercial use, Mainland China solely through an oral agreement, leading to differing accounts from
distribution, and reproduction in any the involved parties and making it impossible to reconstruct the truth about the event. It
medium, provided the original work
is properly cited. is clear that there is significant risk in conducting international exhibition cooperation
without a written agreement, and such practices should be avoided in the future.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with 1
regard to jurisdictional claims in The specific details of the storm can be found in Phoenix Art’s report “Case Closed! Lessons
published maps and institutional for Art Practitioners from the World-Famous Kiefer Exhibition Dispute that Lasted for 4
affiliations. Years,” WeChat official account: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/M9mpZygViZ2v3woDIV7zlA.

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2025) 1 doi: 10.36922/ac.2881