Expertise
Petra has considerable litigation and transactional experience in the art, cultural property and luxury markets, acting on behalf of a wide range of private clients, businesses and institutions. Petra’s non-contentious practice involves advising clients on buying, selling and lending art and luxury assets, drafting commercial agreements and terms and conditions of business. Her dispute resolution work often involves complex issues of title, history, provenance, attribution, authenticity and value of works of art and cultural property in an international context.
Petra has practical experience of the art market, having held research, collection management and business roles at museums, galleries and auction houses in the United States and London before training as a lawyer. She holds a BA in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College, PA, and an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Petra has guest lectured at Christie’s Education, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Queen Mary’s Centre for Commercial Law Studies and the Institute of Art and Law. She has contributed to journals and publications, including Art Antiquity and Law, the IBA’s Art law: restrictions on the export of cultural property and artwork and The Art Law Review and regularly comments in the trade press on current art law issues.
Recent Experience
- Acting for and against galleries and auction houses in disputes involving authenticity, misattribution, title and payment.
- Advising artists in negotiating gallery representation agreements, protecting their intellectual property and resolving disputes when they arise.
- Acting for collectors in claims to ownership of artworks and cultural property and in buying and selling works of art and luxury assets.
- Advising claimants, collectors and institutions in relation to restitution of art and cultural property.
Career History
- Wedlake Bell LLP since November 2022
- Charles Russell Speechlys LLP 2021 – 2022
- Hunters Law LLP 2014 – 2021
Senior Vice Chair of the International Bar Association’s Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee. Member of Art Resolve, Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA), Professional Advisors to the International Art Market (PAIAM) and the Institute of Art and Law (IAL).
Endorsements
- Chambers UK, Associate to Watch, 2023
- Chambers HNW, Associate to Watch, 2023