Chloe Fyfe

Dr Chloe Fyfe is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham specializing in the intersection of cultural heritage, financial regulation, and international law. Her work critically examines colonial legacies in cultural institutions, art market political economy, and free port mechanisms through a decolonial lens.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in History of Art (2025), University of Glasgow, thesis on free ports and cultural heritage risks
• MSc in History of Art: Collecting and Provenance in an International Context (Distinction), University of Glasgow
• MA in History of Art (First Class Honours), University of Glasgow

Fyfe's research integrates art history, legal studies, and policy analysis to investigate how economic structures enable illicit art circulation, tax evasion, and sanctions bypassing. She focuses on free ports as colonial policy remnants that facilitate financial crime while perpetuating inequities in cultural heritage management, with particular attention to Brexit's regulatory impact on the British art market.

Her publication trajectory reveals a consistent historical-to-contemporary analytical framework: from medieval trade mechanisms (Livorno study) to modern tax evasion conduits (2022 Palgrave work) and current Brexit-related regulatory gaps. This research demonstrates how free ports systematically conceal illicit art flows while reinforcing colonial power structures in global cultural economics.

No scientific awards reported.

As an educator, Fyfe designs and leads courses on feminist art histories, cultural property law, Renaissance/Scottish art, and AI's role in art markets across undergraduate, postgraduate, and adult education. Her inclusive, research-led pedagogy challenges dominant art historical narratives. She also contributes to policy research for local government and supports digital provenance initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.