The 1990 Britart explosion brought about an increasing awareness of the commercial potential for art, whether from the point of view of the private collector, the gallery, or artists themselves.This commercialisation has seen an increase in the involve-ment of lawyers in the art market.

Acting as a legal adviser can take many forms, from the small specialist practitioner to the in-house lawyer in a large gallery.Tony Thompson, head of employment at City firm Macfarlanes, is in the 'big gallery' corner; the firm is external legal adviser to the Royal Academy, involving 'as broad a range of work as can be imagined', he says.Side by side with the work which the Royal Academy generates in common with other large institutions -- employment, contracting and property issues -- it is an unique organisation requiring specific advice.Mr Thompson explains: 'The academy was established by Royal Charter, so we frequently advise on constitutional issues relating to the powers of the academy and the extent to which it can delegate.

There are several manoeuvres for which it requires the sovereign's consent.'Other work Macfarlanes does includes commercial disputes, which can arise over the conditions under which paintings are loaned to galleries for exhibition, contracts for the supply of anything from food to acoustic guides, and licensing.

Mr Thompson says: 'There is a strong element of corporate hospitality that accompanies the academy's summer exhibition, and we make specific and general licensing applications to cater for these.'More technical work involves advising on tax and charity law relating to donations and benefactions.Sharon Page -- with a background working in private practice in Devon -- joined the Treasury Solicitors department in 1991, before moving to the government team working on the franchising of the railways in 1994.

'This gave me invaluable experience of meeting City firms,' she says.

By 1997, when she arrived at the Tate Gallery in London to take up the position of head of the secretariat -- which includes the in-house legal role -- she had already acquired a host of good City connections.One of the first things Ms Page did was to put the organisation of the gallery on a legal and commercial footing.

She says: 'It was mainly done through old-style "gentlemen's agreements" when I arrived.' This included drawing up specific contracts for exhibitions.Ms Page's job has become more complicated as a result of the launch last year of Tate Modern, and the re-branding of the old Tate as Tate Britain.

The vehicle for the restructuring of the gallery was Tate Gallery Projects Limited.Ms Page used Simmons & Simmons and Herbert Smith to deal with the property and lease financing law respectively, even though the Tate appointed Linklaters & Alliance and Bates Wells & Braithwaite to be its usual external lawyers in 1999, following a competitive tendering exercise.Ms Page may be the only gallery in-house lawyer in the country, but times are changing, she says.

'Most British galleries and museums are behind the times as far as the American approach goes,' she says, explaining: 'In the US, they all have their own in-house legal departments.

I've noticed that, following the Tate's example, The British Museum is now appointing an in-house lawyer to its board.'Chris Parkinson, a partner at Finers Stephens Innocent, has acted for a range of galleries -- including the fashionable east London White Cube Gallery -- and private collectors.

He says some of the most interesting deals he does are private 'off-market' transactions, between wealthy private collectors.Mr Parkinson adds: 'You will look through a catalogue of a famous artist's work, and in various places the catalogue will say "location unknown".

And you frequently find yourself dealing on a sale which keeps the location secret, typically between two wealthy families.'He does not only act for families, however, and has acted on behalf of the Chinese government in relation to the repatriation of national treasures to China.Away from the one-off transactions and deals, Mr Parkinson says that working for galleries is absorbing because it ranges 'from the large businesslike institution to vanity outfits.

There is one gallery I know of at the moment which is effectively a couple of pretty girls funded by a wealthy individual'.Working for a serious gallery, such as White Cube, involves drafting funding arrangements, and shareholders' agreements.

But as art modernises, so does the legal business input.Mr Parkinson explains: 'Nowadays many more artists are producing installations -- like Damien Hirst's famous [dead sheep in formaldehyde] "Mother and child divided", and Tracy Emin's bed.

When Damien Hirst produces an installation, he draws the idea and then hands this over to a fabrication team to actually build it.'This has serious legal ramifications, as Mr Parkinson points out: 'The important point is that there is no protection under English law for an idea.

So, if an artist produces an installation without any drawings, it's very difficult to protect the ownership of the idea.

but then there is the issue of subcontracting the fabrication to a fabrication team.

All these relationships have to be formally imposed by contract to preserve the provenance of the idea.'The problem behind the law, says Mr Parkinson, is that it does not recognise the arrangement of objects in a certain style as a copyright.

'One day soon this issue is going to need to be tested in the courts,' he adds.The public may see art galleries as an escape from the hectic pace of modern life, but the Internet revolution is catching up with art.

'I'm looking into the brand and content licensing issues surrounding a new joint Internet alliance between the Tate and the New York Museum of Modern Art,' says Ms Page.The alliance will see the two galleries using a joint Web site through which the public will be able to take a virtual tour around both galleries.

Mr Parkinson says such on-line galleries raise copyright issues, as consents are required to reproduce all the contributing painters' works.One thing that lawyers dealing in the art world seem to have in common -- no matter where they work -- is that they are called upon occasionally to act in esoteric areas.Ms Page sat on the working party of the National Museum Directors' Conference, which drafted guidelines for work alleged to have been plundered by the Nazis -- who stole thousands of paintings from national and private collections during the Second World War.The Tate was the first museum against which a claim was brought in 1999; a Jewish family of private collectors lodged a claim to a painting of Hampton Court Palace by the Dutch landscape artist Jan Griffier.'It was very clear to us that there was no legal basis upon which the family's claim could rest,' says Ms Page, 'The amount of time that had passed, and the quantity of good faith sales that had taken place in that time simply made a legal claim for ownership impossible.'But there was a compelling moral claim, she explains.

The government set up a panel to review claims of this sort, and decided in the last fortnight to make an ex gratia payment to the family of £125,000.Mr Thompson has al so advised in relation to the Nazi looting issue.

He says: 'We have looked at the issue of how the academy should deal with claims for restitution of paintings.

This involves close monitoring of other galleries where there are more examples of restitution -- many in New York -- in order to gauge the appropriate approach.'Controversy can be generated not only by the theft of art, but by the art itself, as Mr Thompson knows.

The academy's Sensation exhibition three years ago included a portrait of Moors murderess Myra Hindley formed from children's handprints.Mr Thompson says: 'I had to advise about the potential effects of obscenity and anti-pornography law in relation to the display.

I also had to draft warnings for the public to be placed in the galleries.'It seems that lawyers in the art market -- whether in private practice or in-house -- need an eye for the big picture.