The forum for scholars and professionals engaged in catalogue raisonné projects
Join us for the next ICRA online spotlight on Curatorial, digital and legal perspectives on looted art and catalogues raisonnés: an open question?
What are the problems around transparency in relation to cataloguing and restitution of objects? Is 'looting' a useful term when cataloguing work? How do museums go about checking the provenance of Nazi looted art and non-European spoliated art? Should 'red list' works be included in catalogues raisonnés? Does Native American art raise different issues from a curatorial and legal perspective? In what ways can the legal world work in tandem with museums to mitigate the risks associated with cataloguing looted art? Expert speakers will offer practical advice around spoliated art when putting together a collection catalogue, database or catalogue raisonné.
We'll explore these questions and more from the perspective of #museumcurators, #arthistorians and #artlawyers. ICRA board member Frances Fowle, Emeritus Professor at the University of Edinburgh and author of The Art Market and the Museum, will be in discussion with our distinguished panellists: Victoria Reed, Senior Curator for Provenance at Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Nicholas O'Donnell (Sullivan & Worcester), specialist in cultural property and author of A Tragic Fate: Law and Ethics in the Battle Over Nazi-Looted Art' and cultural heritage lawyer Kate FitzGibbon, specialist in Central Asian Art and author of Native American Art and the Law.
Tuesday 15th July 2025, at 4 - 5.30 pm BST
Reserve your ticket here
📷 US soldiers retrieving stolen art from Neuschwanstein Castle, end of WWII. Public domain.
We are delighted to welcome Frances Fowle and Lisa Le Feuvre to the ICRA Board.
Lisa is a curator, writer, and editor. In 2018 she became inaugural Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation, the artist foundation dedicated to the legacies of artists Nancy Holt (1938-2014) and Robert Smithson (1938-1973). Previously based in the UK, she led the Henry Moore Institute from 2010 through 2017, directed the contemporary art program at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich from 2005 to 2009, was an academic based in the graduate Curatorial Program at Goldsmiths College, and Course Director of the graduate program in Arts Policy and Management at Birkbeck College, University of London.
Frances is Professor Emerita of Nineteenth-Century Art at the University of Edinburgh and was previously Senior Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland. She co-authored the critical catalogue of French Paintings 1500-1900 at the Scottish National Gallery (2023) and wrote the introductory essay for the Digital Degas Catalogue Raisonné (2024).
ICRA's 6th Annual Conference | 'New Thinking About the Catalogue Raisonné'
ICRA's 6th Annual Conference at Mishcon de Reya on January 9th provided a wealth of new thinking on the catalogue raisonné. Panellists shared ideas from different cultures and viewpoints, including publishers, authors, curators, museum and artist foundation directors, as well as art lawyers and art market representatives.The environment was warm and collegial and the discussion challenged our accepted ideas, pushing us forward into the future.
It was also an excellent opportunity for colleagues to meet and exchange ideas during and in between panels, during lunch and drinks. Sharing expertise and knowledge with each other about cataloguing art is a key part of ICRA’s mission.
Images: @roseacpalmerphotos
With thanks to our sponsors
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Recent Events
Spotlight on Authentication: Legal Issues and the Catalogue Raisonné
The International Catalogue Raisonné Association (ICRA) and the Art Lawyers Association (ALA) are delighted to invite you to this joint online panel discussion on Wednesday 23rd October, 2024 at 16.00 BST
Join ICRA and a distinguished panel of art lawyers from the ALA to discuss authentications and catalogues raisonnés from a legal perspective, focusing on the question of: “to authenticate or not?"
Many of our authors, artists, consultants, lawyers and estates have questions about this, and we had no time to get into the topic during the previous Spotlight. Many, as we know, are no longer authenticating and some lawyers are no longer advising authentication of artworks - why? What is at stake? Others still believe it is the only way. Is there a shift going on in the field of legal thinking about authentication? Are there landmark cases? Where does that leave catalogues raisonnés and their authors (including living artists preparing their own CR)?
You may register to attend the event by clicking here or find out more
Legal Issues and the Catalogue Raisonné
The International Catalogue Raisonné Association and the Art Lawyers Association are delighted to invite you to a joint online Spotlight on Legal Issues and the Catalogue Raisonné.
The session will be introduced by ICRA Chair Sharon Hecker and moderated by ICRA Board member Sarah Davis. Our distinguished panellists will be Steven Schindler (Founding Partner, Schindler Cohen & Hochman LLP), Pierre Valentin (Art Lawyer and CoFounder of ICRA), Amanda Gray (Partner, Mishcon de Reya LLP), and Martin Wilson (Chief Legal Counsel and Head of Fiduciary Services, Phillips).
Drawing Room Visit
Building on the success of the 2023 ICRA Annual conference, ‘On Paper’, ICRA would like to invite you to join Sharon Hecker, Matthew Stephenson and ICRA Board members on a visit to the new home of Drawing Room in Bermondsey to see the Drawing Biennial on Thursday 27th June
Visit to Louise Bourgeois' Easton Foundation
Image: Louise Bourgeois in the backyard of her home, New York, 1980. Photo: Mark Setteducati, © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Further to the ICRA December 2023 Annual Conference ‘On Paper’ and the presentation by Sewon Kang, archivist and cataloguer of Louise Bourgeois: The Complete Prints & Books, ICRA would like to invite members to join Sharon Hecker and Matthew Stephenson on a visit to the Easton Foundation and townhouse of Louise Bourgeois on 3rd May at 10.30am at 349 West 20th Street, New York.
Sewon will lead the visit, which usually lasts an hour. Due to the intimate nature of Bourgeois’s house, places are limited to ten places and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Easton Foundation was established by Louise Bourgeois in the 1980s as a non-profit and charitable organization. Upon her death in 2010, at the age of 98, Bourgeois bequeathed her home and an adjacent townhouse to become the Foundation’s center.
For select visitors, the Foundation is pleased to present a comprehensive survey of photographs, exhibition announcements, and personal writings from Bourgeois’s life and career. These documents hint at the breadth and scope of the Louise Bourgeois Archive, and provide unique insight to the artist’s creative process. A selection of Bourgeois’s artworks from the Foundation’s extensive collection will also be on display, and the backyard sculpture garden will be open, weather permitting. In addition, Louise Bourgeois’s home, where many works were conceived or made, will be accessible by guided tour.
ICRA is a not-for-profit members’ association that brings together those involved in the creation, writing, editing, designing and production of catalogues raisonnés.
We facilitate collaboration between projects, the exchange of information about the technical and practical aspects of making a catalogue raisonné, the mentoring of the next generation of scholars, and the support of artists, their estates, collectors and the market on the challenges and responsibilities of creating catalogues raisonnés.
ICRA hosts events throughout the year for the benefit of its members including an annual conference.
For details of upcoming and past events please visit our Events page.
Many of the sessions from our annual conference were filmed and are available on our Youtube channel.