Speaker

Susan Duke Biederman, Esq.

Attorney at Susan Duke Biederman, Esq.

Susan Duke Biederman, Esq. is a fine arts attorney and author, having been in private practice in New York for more than 40 years. Trained as a litigator, she has represented all facets of the fine arts industry, on a worldwide basis, on matters involving artists, their heirs and estates, private collectors, their heirs and estates, dealers, galleries and art advisors, auction houses, museums and curators, corporate collections and corporate creators, legislative, law enforcement and governmental agencies and bodies.

Ms. Duke Biederman is the co-author of the award-winning (Scribes Book Award, Best Work of Legal Scholarship, 1987) multi-volume treatise, Art Law: The Rights and Liabilities of Creators and Collectors, published by Little, Brown and Company. She has lectured and taught widely in the field. The founding chairman of the Art Law Committee for the New York State Bar Association, she has also served on the Board of Directors of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, as well as the Art Law Committee of the Bar Association of the City of New York.

Ms. Duke Biederman is a 1975 graduate of UCLA, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, with a joint degree in mathematics and French, and is a 1978 graduate of the Law School of the University of Chicago, where she earned her Doctor of Law degree.

Speaker

Leiko Coyle

Owner at Leiko Coyle Art Advisory

Leiko Coyle, founder of Leiko Coyle Art Advisory LLC, is an art advisor specializing in fine art from South and Southeast Asia.

Leiko’s love of Asian art began in Nepal where she studied the historical art and spiritual traditions of the Himalayas for nearly a decade. In 2004 she establishedLeiko Coyle Asian Art, a private gallery on New York’s Upper East Side. Along with bi-annual New York Asia Week exhibitions, LCAA participated in numerous art and antique fairs throughout the country and was a founding member of Asian Art Dealers of New York (now Asia Week NY).

In 2014 Leiko joined Christie’s Auction House in New York as Vice President and Senior Specialist of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art. In 2017 she procured a 12th century Indian sculpture which sold for $24,663,500, the highest selling work of Indian and South Asian art in auction history.

In early 2018 Leiko launched Leiko Coyle Art Advisory LLC, a New York based firm offering a vast array of art-related services for both the seasoned collector and those new to the art world. Leiko also established Devotional Masterpieces, a branch of LCAA dedicated to sacred art and the transformational properties of living with devotional objects.

With nearly 20 years in the field of Asian Art, Leiko works with private collectors and institutions around the world. Her approach is based on a deep passion for the field, an emphasis on connoisseurship and a steadfast commitment to integrity and lasting client relationships.

Speaker

Diana Wierbicki

Partner and Global Head of Art Law at Withers Bergman LLP

Diana Wierbicki is a partner at Withersworldwide, leading their global art practice, as well as the US co-Regional Division Leader of their private client and tax team.

As the head of Wither’s global art practice, Diana works with attorneys with expertise in various legal areas, located across the US, Europe and Asia, to ensure that a comprehensive approach to addressing client art needs. She works on a wide range of domestic and cross-border art law matters involving antiquities to contemporary collections. Her practice is focused on transactional art law dealing with all aspects of purchases, sales, loans, consignments and charitable giving of works of art, including tax planning and art finance analysis. She reviews millions of dollars in art transactions and assists clients in navigating the web of legal issues that affect art transactions, such as sales tax, income and wealth transfer taxes, money laundering issues, cultural property concerns, contracted private and auction sale issues, tax audits and charitable planning.

Diana’s clients include the industry’s top collectors, dealers, galleries, charitable organizations, artists, auction houses and museums. In addition, she advises high-net-worth individuals and their families on tax, trust and estate planning matters, as well as on commercial transactions associated with that planning. Art is a unique asset, which presents challenging valuation and family relationship issues that Diana is particularly sensitive to when working with clients. She also advises art businesses on all aspects of their transactions, operations and global expansion, as well as artists with their legacy planning and gallery representation.

A forward thinker, Diana represents clients on many groundbreaking developments that are changing the landscape of the art market, including technology and art and the parallels of fashion and art. She is a frequent speaker on a variety of issues affecting the art market. An established media commentator, Diana has been quoted in numerous news outlets, including The New York Times, CNN, Bloomberg Business, BBC, as well as having written articles for various publications including Forbes, Trusts & Estates (for which she sits on the editorial board), Crain’s, and Wealth Management.

As a contributor to the art and legal community, Diana serves as co-Chair of the Appraisers Association of America’s Art Law Day, as Chair of the Tax Subcommittee for the New York City Bar Association’s Art Law Committee, on the Professional Advisory Council of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on the Planned Giving Advisory Council of the New York Historical Society and as a member of the ArtTable Circle.

Diana received her BA cum laude from Georgetown University, and her J.D. at the Emory University School of Law.

Moderator

Leila A. Amineddoleh

Founding and Managing Partner at Amineddoleh & Associates LLC

With over a decade of litigation and transactional experience, Leila A. Amineddoleh is the Founder and Managing Partner of Amineddoleh & Associates, LLP where she specializes in art, cultural heritage, and intellectual property law.

Leila is involved in all aspects of due diligence and litigation, and has extensive experience in arts transactional work. She has represented major art collectors, art foundations, and dealers in matters related to high-profile multi-million dollar contractual disputes, international cultural heritage law violations, art-backed loan agreements, the recovery of stolen art, and complex fraud schemes. As a leading specialist in art authentication, she collaborates with the world’s foremost forensic scientists and art historians to assist collectors and arts institutions through the complex authentication process. She also advises clients on the acquisition and sale of fine arts and cultural heritage works.

Leila proudly works with artists and entrepreneurs to protect their work and artistic rights, and develop intellectual property portfolios. She is also a certified legal mediator. She has been published extensively on issues related to art, cultural heritage, and intellectual property, and has appeared in major news outlets, including the New York Times, Forbes Magazine, The Guardian, TIME Magazine, and the Wall Street Journal. She also served as the art law and art crime correspondent for Artsy, and has had scholarly contributions published in books, including Nazi Law: From Nuremberg to Nuremberg. As an advocate for the protection of cultural heritage, Leila also serves as a cultural heritage law expert for the New York District Attorney’s Office Antiquities Trafficking Unit, and is currently representing the Greek Ministry of Culture in a litigation against Sotheby’s.

Leila is a recognized expert in art, cultural heritage, and intellectual property law, and speaks on these topics around the world. She teaches International Art & Cultural Heritage Law at Fordham University School of Law, in addition to Art Crime and the Law at New York University.

Leila received her Juris Doctor degree from Boston College Law School, where she was an Editor of the Intellectual Property and Technology Forum online journal. Prior to law school, she received her undergraduate degree in economics from New York University.