William Pearlstein

William Pearlstein is a founding member of Pearlstein McCullough, LLP. Mr. Pearlstein’s art law practice is informed by his decades of experience as a New York transactional lawyer, with prior experience in corporate and commercial law, including securities, private equity, mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Pearlstein has a background in technically demanding, “document intensive” transactions. This gives P&M a competitive advantage in the art market, which can be under-documented and under-lawyered.

Fine and decorative art and collectibles is an asset class with characteristics distinct from traditional asset classes, such as real estate and securities. The value and marketability of art assets depends on the quality of their title, provenance, provenience, authenticity, attribution, condition, import/export and regulatory compliance. Documentation can be poor or absent; attribution, authenticity and valuation can depend on the subjective judgment of experts. This appreciation, confirmed over decades of experience in the art market, gives P&M a superior analytical framework for transactional documentation, disputes and litigation.

Mr. Pearlstein transitioned into art law after writing a series of articles analyzing the legal issues raised by the international antiquities market and the regulatory framework governing the trade. In the years after P&M was founded, the firm developed a reputation as the leading legal resource for antiquities dealers and collectors. Since then, the firm's practice has evolved into the mainstream of the commercial art market. Although we retain our expertise in cultural property and endangered species, our practice is now focused on advising collectors, dealers, auction houses and other professionals in all segments of the art market. In the last few years the firm has advised collectors on gifts to museums of significant collections of contemporary art and cultural property. We have also advised family offices on the disposition of legacy works. These engagements have gone beyond simple transactional advice and involved us in the structure and administration of family offices and wealth management.

Since December 2022, Mr. Pearlstein has been the Executor of the Estate of Philip Pearlstein. This has immersed Mr. Pearlstein all aspects of the administration of an artist's estate, the marketing and sale of an artist's work and the promotion of the artist's legacy. This includes: the preparation and filing of Estate Tax Returns and fiduciary income tax returns; blockage discount analysis; fine art storage; fine art insurance; inventory databases and website; consignments of original art to galleries; consignment of collectibles to auction; auction purchases; private sales; gifts to museums; fiduciary litigation in Surrogate's Court; employment disputes; formation of holding companies and transition of art and financial assets from the Estate to a Family Office. Mr. Pearlstein's intense immersion in all aspects of Estate management and artist management has deepened his perspective and allows Mr. Pearlstein to advise clients with authority from personal experience.

Education

Northwestern University School of Law (J.D., 1984)

– Notes and Comments Editor, Journal of International Law & Business

– Lowden-Wigmore Prize

Yale College (B.A., English, 1979), cum laude.

Publications. Mr. Pearlstein has authored a number of articles relating to issues in art and cultural property law.

Speaking. Mr. Pearlstein is a frequent public speaker. Over the years, he has appeared on numerous panels in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland on a variety of topics including transactional concerns and litigation issues specific to art as an asset class and the art market. Recent venues in New York include Cardozo Law School (where he is a member of the FAME Advisory Panel), the New York City Bar Association (Art Law Committee) and the Appraisers Association of America National Conference. Mr. Pearlstein is periodically quoted in the press, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Art Newspaper and Linkedin.

Art Law Committee, New York City Bar Association

FAME Board, Cardozo Law School (Fashion Art Media Entertainment)

Article, “New EU Customs Regulations on Import of Cultural Goods,” Art & Museum, Autumn 2019

White Paper: A Proposal to Reform U.S. Law and Policy Relating to the International Exchange of Cultural Property, Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal; 2014, Volume 32, Number 2

“Buying and Selling Antiquities in Today’s Market, Spencer’s Art Law Journal, Spring 2012

“Congress, Cultural Property, Customs and the Courts,” Who Owns the Past?, American Council of Cultural Policy, Rutgers University Press (2005)

Claims for the Repatriation of Cultural Property: Prospects for a Managed Antiquities Market, 28:1 Georgetown Journal of Law & Policy in International Business (1997)

Jeanneret v. Vichey, Sales of Illegally Exported Art Under the Uniform Commercial Code, 6 Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business 275 (1984)

Mr. Pearlstein is a frequent public speaker. Over the years, he has appeared on numerous panels in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland on a variety of topics including transactional concerns and litigation issues specific to art as an asset class, antiquities, and endangered species regulation. Recent venues in New York include Cardozo Law School, the New York City Bar Association and the Appraisers Association of America National Conference. Mr. Pearlstein is periodically quoted in the press, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Art Newspaper.

Northwestern University School of Law (J.D., 1984) – Notes and Comments Editor, Journal of International Law & Business – Lowden-Wigmore Prize

J.D.

1981 - 1984

Yale College (B.A., English, 1979)

B.A. English, cum laude

1975 - 1979