On the 23rd and 24th of March 2014, convened towards the end of The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) the conference ‘Whose Culture is it? On cultures of authenticity and ownership in art and cultural heritage’ took place in Maastricht. Organized by the Faculties of Law, Arts and Social Sciences, the University College, and the School of Business and Economics, the purpose of this conference was to explore the diversity of cultures of authenticity and ownership in the fields of art and cultural heritage, today. The two-days conference was generously supported by the Faculty of Law and SWOL.

Different actors may endorse competing or conflicting conceptions of authenticity and ownership. As a consequence, it is often not immediately clear what an authentic material object of art or culture is, who owns it, and how. Likewise, questions of authenticity and ownership can be complex when it comes to intangible art and culture. Some artistic and cultural expressions may even outright deny dominant conceptions of authenticity and ownership as meaningful frames for interpretation. But, such denials will not always prevent powerful authentications and appropriations. In any case, they cause conservationists and other experts major headaches.

‘Whose Culture is it?’ began with an open expert meeting with invited speakers; Dr. Pip Laurenson (head of collections care research Tate, London) addressed urgent questions of ownership of information in collaborative research in arts and heritage, and Dr. Anna Dempster (Senior Lecturer, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London) raised the question of what kind of certainties we can entail in the art world. She was followed by Lawrence Shindell, chairman of ARIS art insurance who spoke on the role of commerce and the risks of the art market system. Prof. Dr. Jos Bazelmans of the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency spoke about the different types of values that make an object culturally significant, placing specific attention on the role of moral values. Each paper was followed by a respondent from a different disciplinary background offering a new perspective on the subject at hand.

During the second day in total 12 papers were presented by (inter)national speakers following on a call for papers. Topics included for example the work of the Dutch restitution committee (Evelien Campfens), authenticity and provenance research (Beate Schreiber), legal issues in the conservation of performance art (Patrizia Koenig), and tensions of authenticity in illegal and organised urban exploration of heritage sites (Annika Richterich). Bringing together a diverse range of academics and professionals, the conference demonstrated the complexity of arts and heritage issues and the need for an integrated approach involving law, economics and social sciences in tackling these issues. Both the expert meeting and conference proved to be a fertile ground for articulating research topics for the Maastricht Centre for Arts, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH) on its way. The organizers of ‘Whose Culture is it?’ have also already agreed to continue collaboration towards a second conference on intersecting issues in arts and heritage scheduled in conjunction with TEFAF 2015.