Legal Guide for Museum Professionals - by Julia Courtney (Paperback)

About the Book

From intellectual property law to navigating the hazards of social media, de-accessioning concerns to governance law, copyright, intellectual property law, and rights and reproduction questions to issues of public trust, The Legal Guide for Museum Professionals provides answer...

Book Synopsis

From intellectual property law to navigating the hazards of social media, de-accessioning concerns to governance law, copyright, intellectual property law, and rights and reproduction questions to issues of public trust, The Legal Guide for Museum Professionals provides answers and action steps for mid to small-sized museums of all disciplines.

Review Quotes

At last we have a practical and accessible resource to understand current and critical issues at the intersection of law and museums today, authored by thought leaders in the field.

This collection is a much-needed resource for those seeking materials on legal issues written for practicing museum professionals, not attorneys or legal scholars. I am delighted to contribute to a work which will be useful to me as a teacher of museum studies and to others as a reference.


This collection of 20 essays is divided into four sections: Collections and Exhibits, Government and Finance, Operations, and Digital Technology and Social Media, all within a legal framework. The authors, mostly attorneys with backgrounds in the art and museum world, explore diverse topics, among them the status of deaccessioned items, legal aspects of traveling exhibits, security staff, endowments, and provenance research. One chapter examines the laws surrounding museum ownership of firearms. Topics are as current as the legal complications related to a museum's presence on social media. The target audience is somewhat focused: museum employees in particular. However, students and faculty in programs of museum studies will also find the information in this volume (and others recently issued by this publisher, such as The Manual of Museum Learning) of considerable use. Libraries serving these populations should consider this volume.

About the Author

Julia Courtney has more than twenty years of experience in the museum field, first as a museum educator and more recently as Curator of Art for the Springfield Museums in Massachusetts. Courtney became interested in museum law through Harvard University's Museum Studies Program and served as moderator for several professional conference sessions on legal issues for museums. She has also published articles on art history and art-related topics.