Heritage Property & Art

Our clients include individuals, executors and trustees, institutional collectors, galleries, art and antique dealers, artists and photographers.

Many of those clients own valuable art or heritage property. Some are of national importance; all are important to their owners, and the management and devolution of them requires careful thought and planning.

We spend time working with our clients to understand their aims and develop a plan which works for them.

How we help

• Succession planning – We provide timely and holistic long-term succession planning for the devolution of art and heritage property

• Taxation – We advise on all tax issues relating to historic buildings and chattels, including conditional exemption claims, offers in lieu, gift and leaseback arrangements, sales, purchases and gifts of art (including import and export issues), loans to museums and provenance issues. We advise both UK residents and non-domiciliaries

• Public access – Some clients open their houses to the public and we also often advise on other ways of offering public access. This might be in connection with conditional exemption claims, or might involve arrangements that qualify for business property relief

• Sale and movement of Art – We regularly advise on the issues surrounding the sale of art, import and export controls on its movement and owners’/trustees’ responsibilities, as well as loans or art to museums both in the UK and internationally

• Art Disputes – Our team of arts disputes specialists are expertly placed to advise when problems and queries arise. Recent cases include contesting the authenticity of a Titian and a Caravaggio and the unlawful removal of a Banksy from Folkestone