The Practice

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NGM provides legal services to a wide variety of clients in the fields of art and cultural property law:

• Governments and Regulatory Authorities
• Museums
• Galleries
• Collectors
• Artists
• Heirs Seeking Restitution of Nazi-Looted Art & Cultural Property

NGM is the only dedicated Art & Cultural Property law practice in Israel. Our mission is to understand and protect our clients' interests in the complex world of art and cultural property.  Our knowledge in this field is second-to-none and we serve as  consultants to governments, organizations, corporations and individuals.  Our expertise in art and cultural property law in Israel and abroad is recognized internationally, and we are dedicated to using this knowledge and experience on behalf of our clients. 

Attorney Niv Goldberg, our founder and principal, has taken part in some of the most important recent developments in Israel in the field of art and cultural property law, including:

• Stopping the deaccession and sale of hundreds of antiquities from the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem.
• The first-ever Nazi-looted art restitution claim against an Israeli museum brought to court.
• The recovery of archival materials offered for auction after being stolen from important national archives.
• Consulting on and development of collection management policies for major Israeli museums.

Niv Goldberg is an attorney and member of the Israel Bar Association. He serves as NGM's founder and principal , and concurrently as Head of the Art & Cultural Property and Restitution Practice at Schwartz-Narkis & Co. Attorneys-at-Law. Niv completed his articled clerkship at E. Landau Law Offices, where he served in the Litigation and Cultural Property practices.  He received his law degree (LLB), as well as a BA in Art History from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Prior to founding NGM, Israel's only dedicated Art & Cultural Property Law firm,  Niv served as director of the Hashava Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting a comprehensive framework of legislation and regulation for the administration of cultural property in Israel, and in particular in regulating the mechanisms for identifying and locating artwork and Judaica looted from their owners during the Nazi period, and promoting restitution to their heirs.  

Over a period of sixteen years, Niv served in various roles at Yad Vashem's Museum of Holocaust Art, including for six years as the museum's collection manager, thus acquiring a breadth and depth of knowledge in museum practice and serving as one of  Yad Vashem's resident experts on Nazi-looted art.

Niv is a published author on Nazi-looted art and on Art Law, and among other publications, he is the author of the first scholarly article dedicated to the restitution of Nazi-looted art in Israel, as well as the Israel Chapter of the 4th edition (2024) of the Art Law Review. 

Niv is a full member of the Art Lawyers Association.