Two big art law stories have made global headlines over the past month and it would be remiss not to cover at least one of them in this column. And aside from its legal subject matter—a bewigged judge beating down a protestor—what are the legalities of the whole affair? In principle, yes—provided the work, for the purposes of copyright law, is considered sufficiently “original”. It’s likely a moot point: Banksy has stated in print that “copyright is for losers”. So with a disappearing Banksy and a reappearing Contessa, the world of art law has not been short of thought-provoking material.