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More on the Sotheby's-Minor Suit

By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.

The New York Times has more today on the dispute between Sotheby's and Cnet founder Halsey Minor, which I mentioned earlier this week.

I've also heard directly from Minor, who gave me permission to print the following email:

"Sotheby?s is spending all their time talking about what I said at this time or at that time or why I didn?t have the money, etc, etc. Why would they or anyone care? It?s just a lot of noise that is irrelevant. The only actual fact is they did not get the money.

"They of course know I have the capacity to pay but they want to focus on everything except my one simple question. Did they have an economic interest in the painting they were showing me privately and touting, or did they not? Who knows, I still may have paid $9.6 mm for the painting, but at least I would have been able to take their scholarship/marketing in context and with a grain of salt.

"When a broker shows you a home and sells you on its merits and you find out later the broker owned the home, the law has been broken and the process has been tainted. I am going to bet that when they have to finally cough up the documents and stop spouting nonsense they will have served in the dual role of auctioneer and secret undisclosed owner. And all else will have been long forgotten.

"Sometimes companies need to learn that disclosure and honesty is better in the long term than fighting and disparaging."

Full post as published by The Art Law Blog on September 05, 2008 (boomark / email).