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At the last station of the exhibition “Unpacking Jak R. Maier”, visitors are invited to share what their estate would look like.
© Konrad Langer

“Accepting an artistic estate is a big responsibility”

#backstage #onsite
von 
Redaktion
, 14 min reading time

In the following interview, we ask the attorney and university lecturer Anna Kathrin Distelkamp why accepting an inheritance is such a responsibility, how museums should handle legacies and bequests, and how best to make arrangements for one’s own estate during one’s lifetime.

Anna, let’s suppose you inherited an artistic estate. What legal requirements would you have to consider before you could process it?

There’s no easy answer to that because circumstances can be very different. The first thing you’d have to clarify is what exactly comprises the “artistic estate”. In our fictitious case, I’d venture that the following would be included in the artistic estate: the property and the (joint) copyrights to works and writings as well as miscellaneous archived documents, such as photos of the works and possibly a database. Then we’d have to ask the following questions: Does an inventory exist in which all the works are listed? Where are the works now which the testator had in their possession? Are they located, e.g. in a studio or a museum or in other collections? Are the provenances of the individual pieces clarified? What type of written documents belong to the artistic estate?

 

“Am I the sole legatee or are there other legatees who also have a say?”

In the next step, I’d determine whether there are other persons who have rights to the whole estate or to individual works and items. That brings up an array of new questions like: Am I the sole legatee or are there other legatees who also have a say? Are there so-called “entitled beneficiaries” who are legally entitled to payment of their portion of the estate? What contractual agreements to the rights to the works and writings remain in effect after the artist’s death? These could include, for example, (permanent) loan agreements, licensing agreements etc. And then there’s the question of who owns the rights to the written documents, the remaining archived documents, the database etc. On top of that, I’d naturally have to submit an inheritance tax declaration.

 

That is quite a lot to think about. The Bauhaus-Archiv unexpectedly inherited the private and artistic estate of Jak R. Maier. Do different inheritance laws apply to museums than to private persons?

Generally speaking, the same regulations apply to museums as to private persons. However, there are a number of specific matters which have to be considered. For example, museums are often non-profit organisations and/or public institutions. They operate in accordance with ICOM standards because they are legally obliged to maintain and expand their collections on behalf of the public. Museums must also take special care to clarify provenances. German museums with public archives are subject to archive-related regulations set by their respective federal states. If the museum did not inherit the corresponding copyrights, libraries, archives and commemorative institutions can exploit specific copyright restrictions so that they can continue using those works.

“Museums must also take special care to clarify provenances.”

What do you recommend to museums which inherit artistic estates?

Museums should carefully consider whether it is more prudent to accept an inheritance or to turn it down. Accepting an artistic estate is a big responsibility and no one benefits from an estate “wasting away” unopened in a warehouse just because the museum has no capacity to process it. If the legal circumstances are unresolved, it can be difficult to work with it. Sometimes it’s better to cooperate with a private testamentary executor than to accept the entire estate. The best scenario is when a museum concludes an agreement with all the stakeholders – the artist, future legatees and the institution – which stipulates which part of the estate should be bequeathed to the museum following the artist’s death.

In the case of the Maier estate, at what point would we get you involved and why?

It would be best to have me there even before the inheritance is accepted, for example, at the handover or at the initial inspection. That way I could assess whether the institution can even assume ownership of the estate. Of course, the Bauhaus-Archiv has already accepted the inheritance. So now my job would be about clarifying the rights to the holdings. For an institution like the Bauhaus-Archiv, I think it make sense to accept estates like that of Jak R. Maier’s in their entirety. In so doing, the Bauhaus-Archiv has assumed responsibility for all the written assets, the photos and archival documents. We can probably learn a lot about Maier’s surroundings, other artists and works based on these archived documents. The exhibition Unpacking Jak R. Maier as a way of processing the acquired estate demonstrates productive engagement with the holdings which gets down to the nitty-gritty.

Visitors can not only look but touch the objects from the Maier estate, which are presented on open shelves in the exhibition “Unpacking Jak R. Maier”.
© Konrad Langer
The Maier memory is based on motives taken from the Maier estate. It shows how Maier documented his life and work in a precise but often repetitive way. On show at the exhibition “Unpacking Jak R. Maier”.
© Konrad Langer

As a lawyer, you’ve specialised in estates, specifically estate management. Why this area in particular?

I have always been cut out to work at the interface of art, cultural assets and law because, in addition to studying law, I also earned a degree in art history and classical archaeology. I started at UNESCO in Paris in the international department, dealing with matters of cultural heritage, the preservation of cultural assets, education, science and research.

 

When I began working as an attorney in 2013, I was commissioned to draw up an artistic legacy, which involved preparing artistic business arrangements years in advance prior to the artist’s passing. That was a starting point for me. A case like that at such an early stage in one’s professional career always has a big impact. The issue of artistic estates is very multifaceted. It covers a broad spectrum of legal fields – estate and foundation law, non-profit law, art and copyright laws, commercial and corporate law, laws protecting cultural heritage, restitution law. As different as these cases may be, there are certain questions that always crop up in the art and cultural field, as well as the areas of education, research and science.

The Jak R. Maier estate at the Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin comprises many photo albums which document Maiers life and work meticulously.
© Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
Model of sculpture
© Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

You head the degree programme CAS “Works and Estate Management” at the University of the Arts (HKB) in Berne together with the art historian Friederike Hauffe. Why do you differentiate between works and the estate?

Yes, the two-semester degree programme takes place every year. It’s our fourth time teaching it, and the final examinations are coming up. In this programme, we talk about “works” management by artists and collectors while they’re still alive, or by the collecting institutions. But we also discuss the management of estates after the artists or collectors have passed away, or planning arrangements for the estate while they are alive. We consider the works or the estate as comprising artistic pieces, writings and other sources.

 

Regardless of whether these are managed during one’s lifetime or posthumously, we encounter similar questions. There are similar areas in which decisions have to be made, for example, on positioning and contextualising works, involving stakeholders and cooperation partners, conducting inventories and creating databases, producing a collection catalogue, a catalogue raisonné or collection overview, the choice of legal form, dealing with the art market and much more. I enjoy sharing my many years of experience in legal counselling in this field through this degree programme.

Photograph showing the model of a sculpture by Jak R. Maier.
© Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

Jak R. Maier’s artistic estate comprised 17 moving boxes. Inside them, we found numerous photo albums documenting his artworks. We’ve selected a photo from the estate – what spontaneously comes to mind when you see it?

Does the Bauhaus-Archiv know who the photographer was? This piece reminds me of works by the French artist Henri Matisse, of his silhouettes, arranged here as a three-dimensional object.

Anna Kathrin Distelkamp © mc-quadrat Berlin

Anna Kathrin Distelkamp

Anna Kathrin Distelkamp is an attorney and university lecturer. She has specialised in art law since 2013, and specifically in artistic estates, collection estates and art bequests. Together with her colleague Friederike Hauffe, she heads the degree programme CAS “Works and Estate Management” (University of the Arts (HKB)) in Berne, as well as the annual intensive course “Art | Work | Estate”. Her current research project at the HKB addresses decision-making processes when selecting artistic estates. In 2016 she conducted the symposium “Management of Artists’ Estates” together with the auction house Van Ham. Anna Kathrin Distelkamp also teaches courses on museum law for the degree programme “Museum Management and Communication” at the HTW Berlin. She has also earned degrees in art history and classical archaeology.

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