Markets and Responsibilities: Forgeries and the Sale of Goods Act 1979

Ulph, J. (2011), ‘Markets and Responsibilities: Forgeries and the Sale of Goods Act 1979’, Journal of Business Law (3), 261-281.

This article discusses the position where a seller innocently sells a forged painting or other cultural object to another. It considers the application of the Sale of Goods Act 1979. The article argues that an independent statute or a code of practice would be desirable to provide guidance to buyers and sellers of cultural objects, to encourage sellers to be more vigilant in checking the provenance of an object, and to address the difficult question of what should be done with an object once it is discovered to be a forgery.