Abstract:I have been asked to write personally of John [Merryman]. Not of him as scholar,
educator, author, nor even as father of the fields of art and cultural property
law, but as the person who did these things, and more. To present an inclusive,
all-embracing picture of John, the universalist, both in himself and what he has
done.First, I owe my interest, career, and whatever contributions I have made as
lawyer, teacher, and writer on art and cultural property law to John. Nearly 30
years ago, as a corporate litigator and neophyte collector interested in the
connection between art and law, I read Law Ethics and the Visual Arts.1 In chapters entitled “Plunder, Destruction, and
Reparation” and “An Artist’s Life,”
I was taken by its commitment to culture, its questions—such as, Can
art be more valuable than a life?—and its overarching ethical yet
concrete approach to them. I became a fledgling in the fields of art and
cultural property law. A few years later I met John at a conference in
Amsterdam. He became a mentor, model, and friend.
Sovereign Immunity and the Enforcement of International Cultural Property Law
