This is a two-part program.  The first part focuses on how the Art Advisory Panel, comprised of members of the art market, academic, and non-profit sectors, functions within the Internal Revenue Service and the statutory scheme of the Internal Revenue Code.  Established in 1968, this group evaluates appraisals in excess of $20,000 that are produced for art, antiquities, and objects of cultural heritage being donated to charitable organizations and for which the donor seeks a tax benefit.  Presenter Karen Carolan, Chair of the Commissioner’s Art Advisory Panel at the Internal Revenue Service, and respondent Jillianne Arguello, a second year law student at American University – Washington College of Law, will talk about the Art Advisory Panel’s duties and objectives, its composition and the selection of its members, and its criteria and procedures for decision making.  In addition, these panelists will explore the nexus between the work of the Art Advisory Panel and the trade in antiquities and objects of cultural heritage.

In the second part of the program, presenters Andrew Potts, a partner at Nixon Peabody LLP, and Paul Edmondson (J.D., American University – Washington College of Law 1981), Vice President and General Counsel of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, look at how Federal and State historic preservation tax incentives function as tools for the restoration of historic properties, and how historic preservation affects the generation of revenue.  Mr. Potts will use recent examples of his work involving the use of credits under §47 of the Internal Revenue Code, and Mr. Edmondson will talk about incentives to further the preservation of the historic, built environment, such as historic preservation easements and the proposed Historic Homeowners Assistance Act.