Artists’ Archives and Estates: Cultural Memory between Law and Market (2018)

Management, sustainability and advancement of the cultural and patrimonial heritage for an artist’s estate are concerns at the center of the historical, artistic and juridical debate of the contemporary art world which also involves critical economic questions. This text addresses the complex issues of managing an artist’s archives, valuing and authenticating of artworks, as well as drafting and cataloging an inventory. Additionally, this book deals with the wishes and reflections of artists as the impact felt on the heirs and the foundations historians, archivists, museums, collectors, gallery owners, auction houses and jurists. Ultimately, how does an estate deal organically with guidelines and principles of best practices for the protection, enhancement and promotion of artists and their creative legacy. The founding of a new discipline, in particular the legal sense, of the Artist Archives is an important and prevalent question today.

The study includes a paper on the Philippe Vandenberg Foundation by Hélène Vandenberghe, daughter of Philippe Vandenberg and director of the Philippe Vandenberg Foundation.