Refocussing the Legal Issues in Conservation Working Group

[billwei]

The new coordinator for the Legal Issues in Conservation, Bill Wei, and assistant Rebecca Rushfield would like to invite you to help us refocus the work of the group as an international network and forum, providing information and experience which may be helpful to conservators as they carry out their legal and ethical responsibilities. Please let us know what sorts of legal issues you are confronted with in your daily conservation work. If you are not sure what that means consider for example,

- codes of ethics
- contracts between conservators and clients
- copyrights (living artists); use of photographs
- illegal trafficking
- indemnity
- loan agreements (national and international)
- provenance
- restitution
- transport (export permits, insurance, liability)

This list might seem overwhelming and not always relevant to you. However, the legal world is complex, and even the smallest bit of experience in one country or situation might help someone in another situation. We hope to use your suggestions in planning newsletters, meetings and future forums.

Speaking of this forum, we also invite you to make use the working group's forum to discuss any questions or problems you have in more detail. Again, even what you might think is trivial or not important, may help someone elsewhere with a similar problem.

We look forward to working with you.