CAA News Today

The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), a nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to integrity in the visual arts, has launched two important resources for the art community on its recently expanded and redesigned website: the Catalogue Raisonné Database and Art Law and Cultural Property.

The Catalogue Raisonné Database comprises two integrated electronic databases—one for published catalogues raisonnés, the other for catalogues in preparation—that can be searched individually or in unison. IFAR asks anyone who is aware of a published or in-preparation catalogue raisonné not included in our database (currently at more than two thousand entries) to contact the organization by clicking on the link “Tell Us about Catalogues Raisonnés” and completing the electronic form.

Art Law and Cultural Property helps users to navigate the mushrooming and complex body of legislation and case law relating to the acquisition, ownership, and authenticity of art objects. The website has two principal components: International Cultural Property Ownership and Export Legislation, with texts in original language and English translation from, currently, more than eighty countries; and Case Law and Statutes, with summaries of legal cases in eight subject areas relating to IFAR’s fields of interest. A section on professional guidelines, a glossary, and images are also included.

These two double the offerings from IFAR’s current online educational resources, which also include Provenance Guide and Collectors’ Corner. CAA maintains its own website resource, Intellectual Property and the Arts.