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Norman Palmer CBE QC

e-mail npalmer@3sb.law.co.uk

Norman's main areas of practice are the law regarding the art market including the restitution and mobility of art and antiquities and the drafting of art loan agreements; personal property law including bailment, carriage, chattel securities, finance leasing, sale of goods; conversion and title claims; general commercial and contract law; and arbitration.


Norman has advised overseas governments, UK executive agencies, banks, finance companies and other commercial corporations, insolvency practitioners, national and overseas museums, art dealers, private collectors, insurance practitioners, transport companies, local authorities and ecclesiastical bodies.

  • Professional reputation

    Reported as "excellent" in a survey of solicitors on counsel practising in banking law (The Lawyer) and as "distinguished" in the field of art and cultural property law (The Times Law Section).

    In recent years much of Norman’s work has centred on his chairmanship or membership of various cultural law and policy advisory committees to which he has been appointed by successive Ministers for the Arts.

  • Notable recent cases

    Norman’s recent cases include:

    • working since September 2009 on the implementation within Australia of legislation to guarantee immunity from legal process for works of art and other cultural objects loaned or otherwise bailed to Australian public cultural institutions, on the instruction of the Art Gallery of New South Wales which is leading a collective initiative to that effect involving other State and Federal cultural institutions.
    • Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran v. Barakat Galleries Ltd [2009] QB 22; [2007] EWCA Civ. 1374.
    • Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre v Trustees of the Natural History Museum (2007).
    • Bakwin v Erie Trading Ltd [2005] 22nd November (High Court, Master Rose).
    • Marcq v Christie Manson & Woods Ltd [2004] QB 286 (Court of Appeal).
    • Wincanton Ltd v P & O Trans European Ltd [2001] EWCA Civ 227, Court of Appeal).
    • Mayflower Foods Ltd v Barnard Bros Ltd and Others (1996) 9th August (High Court, Manchester).
    • Euro Commercial Leasing Ltd v Cartwright and Lewis [1995] 2 BCLC 618.
    • Re Stapylton Fletcher Ltd [1995] 1 All ER 192.
    • Photo Productions Ltd v Securicor Ltd [1980] AC 827 (advised the Securicor company on its successful appeal to the House of Lords).

    Expert witness evidence

    In November 2007 Norman appeared as an expert witness on English museum law and practice in the arbitration before the Hon Peter Cory (formerly a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada) in the matter of Trustees of the Beaverbrook Foundation v Beaverbrook Art Gallery (heard at Fredericton, New Brunswick and Toronto, Ontario).  He has given expert evidence in other matters, including the English law on limitation periods.

  • Publications

    Norman Palmer has written and edited numerous major works within his fields of expertise, including: 

    • Palmer on Bailment (second edition 1991, third edition November 2009)
    • Art Loans (1997)
    • Interests in Goods (second edition 1998)
    • The Recovery of Stolen Art (1998)
    • Museums and the Holocaust (2000)
    • Cultural Heritage Statutes (second edition 2004)
    • Halsbury's Laws of England (sections on Bailment, Carriers, Confidentiality, Damages, Libraries and other Scientific and Cultural Institutions, Lien, and Tort).

    He is a contributor to the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, English Private Law, and The Laws of Australia. He founded and co-edits the quarterly periodical Art Antiquity and Law.

    Publications by Norman Palmer have been cited by the appellate courts of leading common law jurisdictions. Examples are the House of Lords, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the Court of Appeal of New Zealand. 

    His book on Bailment has attracted, among many others, the following commendations:

    • "Palmer on Bailment belongs to that small and elite class of legal works which transcend the ordinary bounds of textbook-writing by giving their subject a coherence, a shape and a basis in principle which was previously absent, not merely comprising a compilation of decided cases but commanding recognition as an important source of authority in their own right.   The first two editions have been cited with well-earned respect in many judicial decisions"  (Lord Bingham of Cornhill in the foreword to the 3rd Edition) 

    • "... the standard and authoritative text ... the product of immense scholarship in a territory which seems to know no boundaries ... instructive, indeed illuminating, discussion of countless points of interest ... attention to detail, meticulous though it is, does not obscure the exposition of concept and principle which is the abiding strength of the new edition ..." (Sir Anthony Mason AC, KBE, in the Foreword to the 2nd Edition)

    • “.. a work which contains much useful material” (Lord Justice Mance in East West Corpn v DKBS AF 1912 A/S [2003] QB 1509)

    • “Palmer's seminal work on Bailment” (Mr Justice Brereton in Pangallo Estate Pty Ltd & ors v Killara 10 Pty Ltd [2007] NSWSC 1528)
    • “… so far as we know, this is all best explained in Professor Palmer’s book” (Lord Judge CJ in Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust [2009] EWCA Civ 39).
    • “… Professor Palmer’s invaluable book on Bailment …”; (Professor F M B Reynolds in (1995) 111 Law Quarterly Review 8)

  • Awards and achievements

    • Norman Palmer was appointed Queen's Counsel honoris causa, an honorary appointment recognising a major contribution to the law of England and Wales outside of practice in the courts, in 2010.  The citation commended "his work both academic and advisory on the law of property applied to art and historical artefacts, and his publications in the field of bailment law."  
    • Eleanor and Anthony Vallamobroso Award for Art Crime Scholarship (2009) - Elected by the Trustees of the Association for the Research into Crime against Art and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Art Crime
    • Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for Services to Art and to Law (2006)
    • Docteur Honoris Causa of the University of Geneva (2005)
    • Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (2005)
    • Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (2004)
    • Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2000)
    • President of the Foundation for International Cultural Diplomacy, New York (2007)

  • Public appointments

    • Chair, Treasure Valuation Committee (2001 to date; member 1996-2001)
    • Chair, Illicit Trade Advisory Panel (2000 to 2005)
    • Chair, Ministerial Working Group on Human Remains in Museum Collections (2001 to 2003)
    • Member, Spoliation Advisory Panel (2000 to date)
    • Member, Legal Sub-Committee of the Quinquennial Review of the Export Licensing System (2001 to 2003)
    • Visiting Professor of Law at King's College London (2005 to 2008 and 2009 to date)
    • Emeritus Professor of the Law of Art and Cultural Property at UCL
    • Formerly Professor of Commercial Law at UCL

    Other Distinctions:

    • Honorary member of Seven Wentworth, the Chambers of David Jackson QC at Sydney NSW
    • Standing Counsel to the National Gallery of Australia at Canberra.

  • Seminars and lectures

    Norman lectures on all aspects of his practice, both from Chambers, at solicitors’ offices and at venues across the world. Recent talks include:

    • Countering the Unlawful Cross-Border Removal of Cultural Objects: the Major Options and Initiatives (Sofia, Bulgaria, March 2008, as member of Dutch-EU Delegation to the Bulgarian Parliament)
    • Cultural Diplomacy, Museum Policy, Mediation and the Recent Past (Athens, Greece, March 2008)
    • The Retrieval of Looted Art and Antiquities: the European Market and the Issues affecting the sub-Andean Region (September, 2008, Quito, Ecuador, at the invitation of the Co-ordinating Minister for Culture, Republic of Ecuador)
    • Spoliation and Holocaust-related Cultural Objects: Legal and Ethical Models for the Resolution of Claims (London, September 2008, Berlin October 2008).
    • Law, Ethics and the Repatriation of Cultural Treasures (Keynote address to the 50th Anniversary Conference of the UNESCO Inter-Governmental Committee, November 2008, Seoul, Korea)