Criminal prosecutions of art and artists are still not uncommon in the 21st century. Recently, the trials against the Russian punk group Pussy Riot and the performance artist Piotr Pawlenski garnered international attention. While the public is primarily informed about the verdict, the aesthetic debates in court are often overlooked. However, these debates provide insight into the understanding of art that a society possesses and how it is able to negotiate this within a legal framework. The anthology gathers materials on court proceedings that have taken place against artists and curators since the late 19th century. They illustrate the change in the legal assessment of art and the evolution of societal understanding of art. The focus, however, is on the...