Review by William S. Ayres of the book, Beauty and the Beast: On Museums, Art, the Law, and the Market [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983, 256 p.].

Stephen E. Weil, deputy director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, is well known to those interested in law as it relates to the arts and to museums. Beauty and the Beast is a mosaic of papers, articles, book reviews, and speeches written by Weil on the subjects of the techniques of museum administration, the legal problems of museums and the art market. The work makes no claim to be a comprehensive survey of art law or museum law; rather, it is billed as a personal record of how museums, art, the law and the market have appeared to one witness - a changing person in a changing time - over the span of a dozen years (the earliest selection dates from 1971 and the latest from 1982). As such, it succeeds very well in stating questions exploring problems, and proposing solutions in areas of interest to the museum world and those who come into contact with it. Weil is intelligent, perceptive, and writes in an enviably smooth-yet-precise prose style. Beauty and the Beast is recommended reading for anyone interested in the subject matter that it treats.

Review by William S. Ayres of the book, Beauty and the Beast: On Museums, Art, the Law, and the Market [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983, 256 p.].