ABSTRACT
This Article seeks to identify the normative foundations of a property theory of ownership and custody of cultural objects. It underscores the unique traits of cultural property as a type of asset and its implications for delineating a set of rights and duties that may diverge from those that apply to assets such as land, other chattels, intellectual property, and digital assets. Particularly, this Article aims to lay out the corresponding sets of in rem rights and in rem duties that should apply to museums and other cultural institutions as both proprietors and custodians of cultural objects, by reconsidering the role of ‘placeness’ of such institutions. This Article sheds new light on the tangible/intangible interface of cultural property, dealing not only with the complex link between physical control, intellectual property, and digital representation of cultural property but also with questions of cultural heritage and the sense of individual and collective identity for different types of stakeholders located within and across national borders.
Lehavi, Amnon, A Property Theory of Ownership and Custody of Cultural Objects (September 15, 2025), 57 George Washington International Law Review 163 (2025).
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