Lisette Aguilar

Practice Areas

Lisette specialises in art-related disputes and transactions, and also has a general commercial litigation background. During her 12 years as a senior in-house lawyer at Sotheby’s, Lisette worked on some of the most high-profile cases in the art world. Lisette’s auction-house background has given her extensive experience of handling issues arising from questions of authenticity and attribution, provenance and ownership, World War II restitution, cultural property claims, export, loss and damage, and copyright, both in Europe and Asia. Lisette also advises on contracts relating to the purchase and sale of art, both at auction and privately, as well as settlement agreements and confidentiality agreements. She frequently works with private and corporate collectors, trustees and family representatives, artists and artists’ estates, dealers, art advisors, museums and independent art experts.

Career

Lisette qualified as a solicitor in 2001. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2019, she worked at the following firms:

Sotheby’s

Office of the Parliamentary Counsel

Slaughter and May

Languages Spoken

French

Experience

Won at trial the case of Lancelot William Thwaytes v Sotheby’s [2015] EWHC 36 (Ch), successfully defending a negligence claim concerning the attribution and auction sale of a copy of Caravaggio’s “The Cardsharps”.

Won at trial the case of Lord Coleridge v Sotheby’s [2012] EWHC 370 (Ch), successfully defending a negligence claim regarding the 18th-century dating of an alleged Tudor gold judicial chain of office.

Successfully defended a misrepresentation claim in relation to the authenticity of a painting by a Russian artist.

Resolved a family dispute in relation to the allocation and valuation of art forming part of an inheritance division.

Resolved an ownership dispute between an artist’s estate and a collector, enabling the auction sale of that artist’s work.

Liaised with law enforcement agencies in relation to the identification and return of antiquities.

Acted on an arbitration under the ICC rules.

Acted for ABN Amro bank in a dispute concerning its Moroccan subsidiary.

Appointed to the arbitrator panel for the Court of Art Arbitration in the Hague, specifically set up to deal with art disputes.