Art & Cultural Property Law and Restitution Department

The department, led by Advocate Niv Goldberg, deals with various aspects relating to artworks and other cultural property. The integrated teamwork between the office's multifaceted practices allows the department to offer the full range of legal services to governmental cultural authorities and institutions, museums, galleries, auction houses, collectors and artists. The department also specializes in the recovery of cultural property, particularly artworks, looted under the Nazi regime, and its restitution to legal owners and heirs.

The department's lawyers have extensive experience with cases in the center of art law in Israel, including some of the most important and precedent setting in the field: saving the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art from sale at a foreign auction, the first restitution case to be brought against an Israeli museum, identification of a misattributed Nazi-looted artwork held by a major Israeli museum, stopping the sale of stolen cultural property offered at auction and restitution to its legal owners, establishing the legal ownership of a monumental private collection of cultural property and facilitating its sale, representation of clients before regulatory authorities, drafting museum collection guidelines, policies and procedures for some of the largest museums in the country, representing purchasers at auction and more.
We also provide legal counsel regarding all aspects of art as an investment vehicle.