I have been asked to write personally of John [Merryman]. Not of him as scholar, educator, author, nor even as father of the fields of art and cultural property law, but as the person who did these things, and more. To present an inclusive, all-embracing picture of John, the universalist, both in himself and what he has done.

First, I owe my interest, career, and whatever contributions I have made as lawyer, teacher, and writer on art and cultural property law to John. Nearly 30 years ago, as a corporate litigator and neophyte collector interested in the connection between art and law, I read Law Ethics and the Visual Arts.1 In chapters entitled “Plunder, Destruction, and Reparation” and “An Artist’s Life,” I was taken by its commitment to culture, its questions—such as, Can art be more valuable than a life?—and its overarching ethical yet concrete approach to them. I became a fledgling in the fields of art and cultural property law. A few years later I met John at a conference in Amsterdam. He became a mentor, model, and friend.