Copyright Law
The Art Law Blog 
News and information about the laws that apply to the arts.
Post Frequency: 3.1/day Last Entry: November 20, 2009 at 11:33:00 Recent Entries: 953
By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.
Go to The Art Law Blog, find other Copyright Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Search
Posts
Schrock and Roll
Posted on November 20, 2009Clarida and Bernstein on the recent Schrock decision (mentioned earlier here):"[T]he cases appeared to diverge as to three fundamental questions: (1) Is a photograph of a copyrighted work a derivative work at all? (the 'Definition Question'); (2) Must such a derivative work exhibit a higher level of originality in order to qualify for copyright protection? (the 'Originality Question'); (3) Must the creator of such a derivative work obtain separate specific permission to register his or her copyright, over and above the permission required to create the derivative work? (the 'Permission Question')...
"Visual artists are conflicted as to where they stand in relation to copyright laws"
Posted on November 19, 2009Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento: What Do Artists Want?
"An amazing story on many levels"
Posted on November 19, 2009Judith Dobrzynski on the most stolen work of art in recorded history.
"The jury ... took less than 40 minutes, including lunch"
Posted on November 17, 2009The Houston Chronicle: "A jury Monday disappointed the daughter of philanthropist and oilman Alfred Glassell Jr. by ruling that he was neither incapacitated nor unduly influenced when he gave the bulk of his half-billion dollar estate to charity [including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston] and not to her...
"It seems likely most ? consignors whose possessions were sold but who have yet to receive payment ? are going to come out ... empty-handed"
Posted on November 17, 2009The Toronto Globe and Mail on the bankruptcy of Toronto-based Ritchies Auctioneers.
Another Museum Embezzlement
Posted on November 17, 2009The Delaware News Journal: "A former Winterthur Museum employee voluntarily turned himself into Delaware State Police ... after a theft investigation revealed he had spent more than $100,000 of the museum's money."
"What makes this theft any different from a typical 'smash and grab' job?"
Posted on November 17, 2009Art Theft Central's Mark Durney has more on last week's Munch theft in Oslo.
"The moralizing is a bit much"
Posted on November 16, 2009Jerry Saltz on the New Museum in this week's New York magazine.More from Saltz here.Related post here.
A Couple of Deaccessioning Notes
Posted on November 14, 2009Via The Deaccessioning Blog. First, it seems Assemblyman Brodsky (of the Brodsky Bill) recently came and talked to the Art Law Society at Cardozo Law School. You can read an account of the visit here. The Deaccessioning Blog's take: "Reading Brodsky's thoughts gives one hope that he's finally realizing the economic severity faced by museums and art institutions, and if the Brodsky bill restricts the use of funds acquired through deaccessioning to only the purchase of new works, museums will face dire financial situations which will force them to lay-off staff in droves, not to mention lower the academic and aesthetic design and implementation of their planned exhibitions...
"For the latecomers, an outline of the high points thus far"
Posted on November 13, 2009Artnet News summarizes the New Museum "brouhaha" to date.
More Munch Thievery
Posted on November 13, 2009From the AP: "Thieves stole a valuable artwork by Edvard Munch from an Oslo art dealer in the latest of a string of art heists targeting work by the famous Norwegian expressionist, police said Friday. One or more thieves stole [the lithograph] from Nyborgs Kunst in downtown Oslo after smashing one of the dealership's windows with a rock...
Against the "purity police"
Posted on November 12, 2009Terrific post by Regina Hackett on the New Museum controversy:"Purity police chief Tyler Green would prefer that we not see this show. I don't know Dakis Joannou and am not likely to be invited to his house. I do know about his collection and am grateful it will be on view to the public...
"Then what might have seemed like whining turned serious"
Posted on November 11, 2009Jerry Saltz on the controversy surrounding the New Museum's upcoming show of Dakis Joannou's "fabled," incredible" (Saltz's words) collection.The Art Market Monitor comments here.Non-profit lawprof Susan Gary says "in my view, the benefits of this show outweigh the conflicts...
"A San Francisco artist who was chosen by city officials to paint a mural on Market Street was stabbed last weekend ... while working on the job"
Posted on November 11, 2009San Francisco Examiner story here.
"Has such a large portion of any other artist's catalogue been stolen or looted?"
Posted on November 11, 2009Mark Durney looks at Vermeer's art theft track record.
New Lawyers for Fairey
Posted on November 11, 2009Report from the New York Times here. According to Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento, in granting the request Judge Hellerstein said he had "never seen anything like this" and described Fairey?s conduct as a "serious transgression" -- but added that (like a lot of people) he wants "this case to be decided on the merits...
"What's Wrong With Charitable Giving"
Posted on November 11, 2009Pablo Eisenberg attempts an answer in the Wall Street Journal. The Nonprofit Law Prof Blog adds some thoughts.Longtime readers my remember Eisenberg for his argument that the tax deduction for fractional gifts of art should be abolished.
"Seung's blind reliance on Dinaburg's alleged statements of the painting's value is not reasonable as a matter of law"
Posted on November 08, 2009I've been meaning to mention the recent NY state court decision dismissing a claim by a collector who bought a Julian Schnabel painting for $380,000 from a dealer who allegedly said it was worth "at least $500,000" when its true market value "was no more than $110,000...
"People disagree vigorously over whether a photo of a copyrighted work is a derivative work. The court refused to resolve the issue"
Posted on November 08, 2009Rebecca Tushnet: "Seventh Circuit rejects Gracen, tries again."The decision is here. For background, see here.
"There is no logical connection between Sotheby's failure to disclose a security interest and any actual or potential injury to ? Minor"
Posted on November 07, 2009Though it comes in the fairly narrow context of a motion for leave to amend his counterclaims, there is some language in a recent decision in the lawsuit that would seem to be pretty devastating to Halsey Minor's overall case against Sotheby's. First, the court rejected the idea that the alleged non-disclosure could have injured Minor in any way:"Minor does not allege that ...
More on Moore
Posted on November 05, 2009Rebecca Tushnet has a good summary of the district court decision (mentioned earlier here) in favor of Daniel Moore in his lawsuit with the University of Alabama. She says "the Tiger Woods case is so on point that quoting big chunks of it got the court basically where it needed to go...
"How can cultural heritage institutions legally use the Internet to improve public access to the rich collections they hold?"
Posted on November 05, 2009I've linked on a number of occasions to Peter Hirtle's thoughtful commentary on the Brodsky bill and related issues. Peter's now co-authored a new book entitled Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, which I'm sure is well worth checking out...
"School, sculptor in battle over art"
Posted on November 05, 2009From the Detroit Free Press: "A renowned sculptor and Holocaust survivor who spent the last 37 years as artist-in-residence at Orchard Lake St. Mary's prep school is engaged in a bitter feud with school officials over who owns more than $2 million in artwork at the campus...
Deaccessioning Quote of the Day
Posted on November 03, 2009From Crispin Sartwell (reacting to this piece by Peter Brooks in the NYRB):"for example, the metropolitan museum says that it possesses 5 million objects. now how many of these are on display? 20,000? so in what sense is the work 'viewable'? it's like - correction: it is - a massive bunker of art, a miser with a stashed hoard of useless gold...
"We can all be fooled, and this man fooled me"
Posted on November 03, 2009"The FBI is investigating allegations that William Toye, 78, and his wife Beryl Ann, 68, have been selling forged paintings to unsuspecting art collectors and dealers since the 1970s."The investigation concerns the work of outsider artist Clementine Hunter.
"Heiress fights dad's bequest to the arts"
Posted on November 03, 2009From the UPI: "The daughter of a late Texas oil pioneer claims lawyers coerced her father into cutting her share of his estate and convinced him to give it to charity instead. Curry Glassell ... claims in a lawsuit her father, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp...
Fairey's New Lawyers
Posted on November 03, 2009Shepard Fairey has a new legal team in place for his lawsuit with the AP. (The change was occasioned by this.)
Moore to Come
Posted on November 03, 2009In my initial post on the University of Alabama's lawsuit against sports artist Daniel Moore, I said: "I make Moore a two-touchdown favorite to win." Well, three years (and several judges) later, Moore has won at the district court level. In granting his motion for summary judgment, however, the court made it very clear that "this court is a way station on the route to appellate court(s)" and said it would certify its rulings for immediate appeal under Rule 54(b)...
Bailed Out Art
Posted on October 29, 2009One of the strange features of the strict anti-deaccessioning position, it seems to me, is the whole notion of the "public trust." How is it, exactly, that works owned by museums comes to be "held in the public trust" such that they can never be sold (except to buy other art)? What is the mechanism? It is sometimes suggested that this is a function of the favorable tax treatment museums receive: because museums are exempt from property and income taxes, and donors get tax deductions for contributing to them, the "public" therefore is the true owner of the art...
Here's the Rub
Posted on October 29, 2009Lee Rosenbaum asks former Cleveland Museum director Timothy Rub about the decision to use (with court permission) certain acquisition-specific funds to help complete the museum's expansion project. He says:"There are legal means that have been in place for a long time to ask courts to determine whether or not funds that have been contributed for one purpose can be utilized ...
"I don?t regard copyright as a property right, but rather as a government program, a social program"
Posted on October 29, 2009An interesting conversation between Clancco's Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento and copyright scholar William Patry.
Much Better Than The Old Criminologist
Posted on October 29, 2009The New Crimonologist takes a look at art crime.
More on the Rose Lawsuit
Posted on October 27, 2009I mentioned, after the probate court hearing earlier this month, that it was a little unclear where things stood in the Rose Museum lawsuit. It seemed, at the time, that it was being reported as something of a victory for the plaintiffs. ARTINFO.com, for example, headlined their piece: "Judge Lets Rose Museum Suit Stand...
"Brandeis Wasn't Wrong"
Posted on October 23, 2009An interesting piece inside Inside Higher Ed by former Northwestern dean Rudolph Weingartner, who describes himself as "a lifetime 'consumer' and supporter of the arts." He acknowledges "a significant role for art museums on higher education campuses," but says:"[W]ith quite special exceptions, I see a very small pedagogic function for colleges and universities to own works of art, especially given the current cost and value of so many of them...
"Didn't Sotheby's waive its right to whine about the hassles of disclosure when it went public?"
Posted on October 22, 2009ContractsProf Blogger Jeremy Telman on a report that Sotheby's is refusing to provide government regulators with information on bonuses paid to its executives on the ground that Christie's might use the info to steal the executives away. [via]
"There was an opportunity to make collecting art something that everyone can do"
Posted on October 22, 2009Online art gallery 20x200 has raised more than $825,000 in venture financing. New York Times story here.
"The issue highlights for me the futility of the entire regulatory process"
Posted on October 22, 2009Peter Hirtle on the latest on deaccessioning from the NY Board of Regents:"The Board of Regents and Education Department should stop trying to micromanage cultural institutions in the state and instead simply require that the governing boards of those institutions operate according to best professional practice and with the mission of the institution in mind...
"Fairey now seems to have committed himself to a version of events that could be taken to suggest he didn't spend much time on the poster"
Posted on October 21, 2009Richard Lacayo on the latest twist in the Shepard Fairey-AP lawsuit:"By claiming to have forgotten at first which photo he had worked from, did Fairey undercut his case in his own suit against AP? Fairey argues that he transformed the original image sufficiently to qualify for fair use protection ...
Putting the public back in "public trust"
Posted on October 21, 2009An interesting approach to deaccessioning at University College London.
"Lawsuit against sports artist nears end"
Posted on October 21, 2009Adam (Not Pacman) Jones of the Tuscaloosa News on the University of Alabama?s lawsuit against sports artist Daniel Moore.
File Under "Careful-What-You-Wish-For"
Posted on October 21, 2009Lee Rosenbaum complains that revised (temporary) anti-deaccessioning rules from the NY Board of Regents are too restrictive.
The Fairey Latest
Posted on October 21, 2009Daryl Lang of Photo District News has a good roundup of Shepard Fairey-AP lawsuit developments. The AP says Fairey "has now concocted another story." Fairey says the AP is "diverting the debate from the central question in this case, which is whether he transformed the Mannie Garcia image into a work of art, which he has...
"To 'Warholize' someone else's photo ... doesn't fall within an existing category of fair use"
Posted on October 21, 2009Prompted by the latest in the Shepard Fairey-AP lawsuit, Columbia lawprof Tim Wu presents Fair Use 101 over at slate.com. It's useful overview, but, as I've said before, I don't think anyone has any idea whether Fairey's poster was a fair use. Take a look at Wu's piece and see if you disagree.
"The idea that I would steal from myself is the most ridiculous thing I?ve ever heard"
Posted on October 21, 2009The LA Times: "Richard L. Weisman, the noted art collector who made news recently when he decided to forgo a multimillion-dollar insurance policy for stolen art, had some critical words for the LAPD detectives investigating his case. 'Maybe if they would do their job ? and spent some time looking for the art instead of being accusatory of the person who had it stolen, they might actually find it,' Weisman said...
"Is the corpse's former intent all we care about?"
Posted on October 20, 2009I missed this post on the Barnes by Peter Friedman last week:"Barnes? original bequest might have forbidden the move, but the result of his restriction, 60 years after his death, was the closing off of a multi-billion dollar collection of art to the wider public, strife between the Foundation and its neighbors, and a threat to the very existence of the Foundation itself...
AP-Fairey News (UPDATED)
Posted on October 17, 2009The New York Times: "Lawyers for the visual artist who created the famous 'Hope' poster of Barack Obama have acknowledged that he lied about which photograph he based the poster on and that he fabricated evidence in an effort to bolster his lawsuit against The Associated Press, according to a statement released by The A...
"However attorneys representing the two sides disagree on the details"
Posted on October 15, 2009Still not clear exactly what happened at yesterday's hearing in the Rose lawsuit. Greg Cook is on the case.
"... a gesture that acknowledges that this collection has moved, been shifted like a tectonic plate and thrust into a new future ? of whatever kind"
Posted on October 15, 2009Time's Richard Lacayo weighs in on the new Barnes design.
You mean deaccessioned works don't go in the shredder?
Posted on October 14, 2009Lee Rosenbaum has another horror story involving a deaccessioned work, this one sold by the National Academy in 1994.
"These guys are still fighting!"
Posted on October 14, 2009Rebecca Tushnet continues to do heroic work tracking the Renoir Wars. The latest: plaintiff's application for $340,000 in legal fees was denied. Says Tushnet: "Any bets on whether plaintiff will appeal? Any estimates on total cost of this litigation to the parties--merely an order of magnitude greater than the damages, or two orders?"
NPR on Finding Frida Kahlo
Posted on October 14, 2009Paddy Johnson gives us the Cliffs Notes version of a recent KCRW piece on what she calls "the so-called new Frida-Kahlos." Her bottom line: "I suppose my deepest annoyance with this story is that it embodies the kind of false myths that create art world controversy where there is none...
"The 'hottest' online art gallery in the world"
Posted on October 14, 2009The Independent on the new Interpol stolen art database.
"The wilful Dr. Barnes has only himself to blame"
Posted on October 14, 2009Witold Rybczynski in Slate.com:"He had an excellent eye and a sharp mind, but unlike other private collectors who founded their own museums?Isabella Stewart Gardner, J. P. Morgan, Duncan Phillips?he was not a good institution builder. As a result, only 50 years after his death, the Barnes stood at the brink of insolvency...
Rose Lawsuit Update
Posted on October 14, 2009A cryptic little report in the Boston Globe on yesterday's hearing on Brandeis's motion to dismiss the Rose lawsuit. The headline is "Brandeis agrees to delay sale of artwork," and the article notes that the motion was denied -- but then it goes on to say that "the university agreed it would not sell any of the artwork donated by the plaintiffs" (as opposed to all artwork at the museum) and "to give the attorney general a 30-day notice and an opportunity for review if it decides to sell any artwork donated by others" (which is something it would probably want to do in any event).
Warhol Theft Update
Posted on October 14, 2009A development in last month's high-profile Los Angeles Warhol theft. The Seattle Times reports that the collector has canceled his $25 million insurance claim for the 10 pieces. He "realizes some people might view it as strange for him to walk away from so much money...
"There have been untruthful and inconsistent statements presented to us by Mr. Amadio"
Posted on October 12, 2009The Boston Globe has the latest twist in the (alleged) Pebble Beach art theft: "Investigators, who previously identified the alleged victims, Dr. Ralph Kennaugh and Angelo Benjamin Amadio, as suspects in the theft are considering the possibility the doctor was a victim of Amadio, a spokesman for the Monterey County Sheriff?s Office said yesterday...
"This is a tremendous thing the community has done tonight"
Posted on October 12, 2009The Blanden Memorial Art Museum deaccessioning went forward this weekend. More than 300 pieces were sold. Judith Dobrzynski summarized the surrounding controversy.
Bonfire of the Vanity
Posted on October 08, 2009As a follow up to Peter Friedman's excellent response below, here's a question for the folks who are outrageously outraged by the move of the Barnes (and I hasten to add that I thought the Barnes should stay put):What if Barnes's Will had provided that the works were to be exhibited in Merion for exactly 50 years -- and then were to be burned in a big bonfire?Should we honor donor intent in that case?Or can we agree that sometimes the public interest trumps the donor's intent?(The Art Market Monitor has been asking a version of this question for some time now...
"How confident are you that Barnes intended his collection to stay where it was come what may, hell or highwater?"
Posted on October 08, 2009In the comments to a post by Peter Friedman discussed here, Barnes-move-protester -- and one of the main talking heads in The Art of the Steal -- Nick Tinari says Friedman's "view of the law is naive at best." Friedman responds:"I guess you want an utterly rigid interpretation, entirely void of context, of words written by a guy who died 60 years ago to control what?s to be done with several billion dollars worth of art even if that means serious restrictions on access to the art...
"Meet the new Barnes Foundation museum, just like the old Barnes"
Posted on October 08, 2009The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board is thrilled with the new Barnes design:"In a substantially larger building ..., the paintings of Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and other masters will be accessible to millions of visitors. That would be impossible at the Barnes' leafy suburban location, where visitors were limited by court orders resulting from battles with neighbors over traffic concerns...
Astor Guilty Verdict
Posted on October 08, 2009Brooke Astor's son was convicted of stealing from her this afternoon. NYT story here. He was found guilty of 14 of the 16 counts against him. One of the two he was not found guilty of was a grand larceny charge stemming from the sale of a Childe Hassam painting.
Cleveland Wins
Posted on October 08, 2009The probate court has granted the Cleveland Museum of Art's request for deviation from the terms of four funds designated for the purchase of art.This should come as no surprise. For background, see here and here.
Orphan Works Program
Posted on October 08, 2009The Art Law and Copyright and Literary Property Committees of the New York City Bar Association, together with Columbia Law School's Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, are presenting a program entitled "Lost and Found: A Practical Look at Orphan Works," Oct...
"This whole thing stinks"
Posted on October 07, 2009The New York Times: "The sheriff?s office of Monterey County, Calif., said that a reported theft of millions of dollars? worth of artworks from a home in Pebble Beach appears to be a scam perpetrated by the alleged victims."You can watch the sheriff's press conference here...
"The forces leading to [the move] are far more human, contradictory, and mundane than any Manichean conspiracy theory would have it"
Posted on October 07, 2009The Philadelphia Inquirer's excellent Stephan Salisbury has a piece in today's paper taking on the Barnes conspiracy theorists:"Ultimately, it was Lincoln [University]'s control, not greedy city elites, that led to the fateful 1990 decision to install prominent attorney Richard Glanton as foundation president, which launched the series of events leading to the Parkway move...
"The architecture is that good" (UPDATED)
Posted on October 06, 2009More from Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron on the new Barnes design:"What has happened to the Barnes is a tragedy, and as with all tragedies, many deserve blame: the neighbors, Lower Merion Township, Lincoln University, the Barnes' management under Richard Glanton...
Amazing Stories
Posted on October 06, 2009The LAT's Mike Boehm has an update on Steven Spielberg's stolen Rockwell, which I last wrote about, more than two years ago, here. Boehm reports that the case (between the owner at the time the work was stolen in 1973 and the dealer who sold it to Spielberg in 1989) is scheduled to go to trial, in federal court in Las Vegas, in January.
4.62 miles
Posted on September 30, 2009As I mentioned below, I got a chance, thanks to Friend of the Barnes Evelyn Yaari, to see The Art of the Steal last night at the New York Film Festival. I was pretty disappointed. It's basically a piece of agit-prop; it makes no effort to provide any sort of balance...
Charitable Deductions Update
Posted on September 30, 2009The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that the Baucus bill includes a 35 percent cap on charitable deductions by wealthy taxpayers (defined as individuals earning $200,000 and families earning $250,000):"That is less drastic than the 28-percent limit proposed by President Obama...
Fake Kahlos?
Posted on September 30, 2009The New York Times had more yesterday on the group of disputed Frida Kahlo works mentioned earlier here:"Last week the Mexican government trust that controls the copyright to Kahlo?s work filed a criminal complaint against [the works' owner], a measure aimed at investigating the works...
"A clear case of injustice ends in victory for free speech"
Posted on September 30, 2009The Buffalo News on the end of "the four-year ordeal of artist and University at Buffalo professor Steven Kurtz."
"What Cha-gall!"
Posted on September 30, 2009That's the lede to this New York Post story on a state court lawsuit by collector Joy Glass against art dealer Lyn Segal:"The painting came with a certificate of authenticity from the Comité Chagall -- a French group recognized as the ultimate authority on Chagall's works...
Joyce Settlement
Posted on September 30, 2009Law.com reports that "the estate of author James Joyce has agreed to pay $240,000 in legal costs incurred by a Stanford University scholar following a fair use legal battle." Aided by the Stanford Law School Fair Use Project, the scholar -- Carol Shloss -- had brought an unusual "copyright misuse" action against the estate, which settled, but she then was awarded $326,000 in legal fees as the prevailing party...
Another Art Theft
Posted on September 30, 2009I mentioned the $27 million Pebble Beach art theft below. The Edmonton Sun reports on a much smaller, and less complicated, theft from a Toronto gallery:"The art rustlers threw a rock through the front window of Gallery Gevik just after 1:30 a.m., picked up the three paintings -- worth as much as $60,000 -- and fled the ritzy downtown neighbourhood before the cavalry arrived in response to the security alarm that was set off...
And We're Back
Posted on September 30, 2009I've been busy atoning for my sins ("and for the sin of considering even the possibility of selling a work of art to keep a museum from closing its doors . . .") and seeing The Art of the Steal at the New York Film Festival (more on that later) and fallen a little behind, so let's start catching up on some news from the last few days, starting with a major art theft in Pebble Beach: paintings and drawings, valued at more than $27 million, from the home of a retired Harvard Medical School professor...
Reinharz Resigning (UPDATED)
Posted on September 25, 2009Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz is resigning at the end of the current academic year. The Boston Globe has the story here. The Globe says Reinharz "dismissed suggestions that he is resigning under pressure arising from the [Rose] museum controversy," but adds:"Controversy over the museum erupted in January, when university officials announced plans to close its art museum and auction parts of its $350 million collection amid heavy investment losses and declining fund-raising...
Kahlo Criminal Investigation
Posted on September 24, 2009The New York Times reports that Mexican prosecutors are "investigating an assertion that more than 1,000 items attributed to the artist Frida Kahlo ... are forgeries." I mentioned this dispute in this roundup over the summer.
Back to Cleveland
Posted on September 24, 2009Lawprof -- and native Clevelander -- Peter Friedman seconds my take on the Cleveland Museum matter:"The CMA has used the doctrine of deviation in the past in a responsible way, and there?s no reason to think, given the obvious need even its critics acknowledge, that if it convinces the court to allow it, that the decision would be a precedent for museums everywhere suddenly to act irresponsibly...
Rose Report Reax
Posted on September 24, 2009More reaction to the Future of the Rose Committee report.The NYT's Randy Kennedy pulls out some choice bits, including:"The committee ... added that [the Rose], 'like many of its fellow university museums, has been oriented too much towards the art world, and not enough towards the academy' and should become more integrated into the university?s educational mission"; and"As for selling the works, the group wrote that it assumed that whatever decision the university made regarding such sales, there would 'remain a substantial collection of art to be preserved and made available for research, study, and cultivation...
"The man then pointed a gun at the museum attendant while an accomplice went inside" (UPDATED)
Posted on September 24, 2009The NYT on a brazen morning theft of a Magritte from a Brussels museum today.UPDATE: Richard Lacayo: "The Art Loss Register estimates the value of the paining at $1.1 million, though it's effective value right now is zero, because stolen paintings by famous names are almost impossible to sell, as the thieves will soon discover...
WE DEMAND THAT YOU NOT CLOSE THE MUSEUM YOU ARE NOT CLOSING
Posted on September 22, 2009The Future of the Rose Committee has issued its final report. The report is here. Boston Globe story here. People seem disappointed that the report takes no position on the potential sale of art, but, in its interim report this spring, the committee made it very clear that it would offer no opinion on that issue...
"Shouldn't these works be made available to people all over the world who want to see them?"
Posted on September 21, 2009Writing about The Art of the Steal, the Toronto Star's Martin Knelman puts himself "squarely on the side of the bad guys":"The audience may enjoy buying into the one-sided account offered in the film, which seduces us by offering a kind of Frank Capra melodrama in which money-grubbing philistines defeat pure-hearted art lovers who wish to honour the memory of Barnes (who died in a car crash in 1951)...
O'Keeffe Appeal
Posted on September 21, 2009Lee Rosenbaum breaks the news that the O'Keeffe Museum is appealing the Tennessee Court of Appeals decision that it lacked standing to participate in the proceedings involving Fisk University's O'Keeffe Collection.
Art of the Steal Deal
Posted on September 21, 2009North American rights to "The Art of the Steal" have been acquired by Rainbow Media.
Cut
Posted on September 17, 2009The City of Long Beach followed through on its threat to cut funding of the Long Beach Museum of Art because of city "officials? ire at having to pay off a $3.06-million bond that museum leaders had promised years ago to cover, but then failed to when their fund-raising campaign fizzled...
Museum Director Charged
Posted on September 17, 2009Newsday reports: "The former director of Long Island University's Hillwood Museum was arraigned on charges of stealing ancient Egyptian artifacts and lying to an FBI agent Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip." The Post goes with the headline: "LI's Pharaoh 'Phraudster...
"Who Keeps Stealing Bernie Madoff?s Art?"
Posted on September 17, 2009New York magazine has some ideas.
Hello Cleveland!
Posted on September 17, 2009Eric Gibson had an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about the Cleveland Museum of Art's request for court permission to use certain acquisition-restricted funds for non-acquisition purposes (namely, to help complete its renovation/expansion)...
Barnes Syllabus
Posted on September 16, 2009Michael Rushton provides a list of readings to enrich your viewing experience of The Art of the Steal.
Wildflowers Oral Argument
Posted on September 15, 2009Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento has a report on the oral arguments in the Chapman Kelley VARA appeal in the Seventh Circuit. You can listen here. Sergio says "they're a bit lengthy but promising to Kelley."For background, see here and here.
Can't Stand It
Posted on September 15, 2009On my first review of the Rose suit against Brandeis, I said the issue of standing was "certainly going to be another problem for the plaintiffs ..., and perhaps a fatal one":"In general, the enforcement of gifts to charities lies with attorney general of the state in which the charity is located...
"Why is preserving every single object ever entrusted to it a higher priority than keeping the museum open?"
Posted on September 15, 2009Massachusetts attorney Mark Gold (who also has a master's in museum studies from Harvard) has a piece in the Sept.-Oct. issue of Museum magazine entitled "Nothing Ethical About It." The "it' in question is the "ethical rule adopted by AAM in 1991 [that] limits the use of proceeds from deaccessioning to acquisitions and the direct care of the collection...
Long Beach Latest
Posted on September 15, 2009The LAT's Mike Boehm has the latest on the Long Beach Museum of Art bond saga. The museum's facing a $400,000 cut in city funding for failing to pay off a $3 million bond the city says it promised to pay. "Whether the museum can sustain a $400,000 cut without having to lay off employees and close a second day a week could depend on whether donors are able to ramp up their gifts to offset the loss, Ronald Nelson, the museum's executive director, said today...
"The film is sharp in every way, from the crisp visuals to the brisk editing and lively musical backgrounding"
Posted on September 14, 2009"The Art of the Steal" gets a nice review in Variety.The Art Market Monitor points out that "there remains a fundamental conflict between the emphasis on art as being held in the public trust and honoring donor intent." Indeed. Suppose I donate a painting to a museum and expressly stipulate that it is my intent that the work be exhibited for exactly 10 years and then sold, and that I further intend that the sales proceeds be used to (as the anti-deaccessionists like to say) "pay the electric bills...
"Is Batson a Chagall charlatan and a Picasso purloiner, or is there another explanation?"
Posted on September 14, 2009ARTINFO.com reports on a lawsuit against a Florida dealer.
"Why not let the market work?"
Posted on September 14, 2009IP lawyer Ben Sheffner on Shepard Fairey v. the AP:"I'm still clinging to my tentative conclusion that whatever Fairey copied was the unprotectable 'fact' of Obama's face (which of course would render the fair use analysis unnecessary). But I think this is a hard case, and I remain persuadable...
More on the Warhol Theft
Posted on September 13, 2009Carol Vogel and Solomon Moore have more in today's New York Times on last week's Los Angeles Warhol theft. The collector is offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the paintings' recovery. They quote Tobias Meyer of Sotheby?s as saying: "Stealing Warhols is a very bad idea...
"Look around and you see galleries struggling, museums cutting staff, universities reducing art resources and nonprofits treading water"
Posted on September 12, 2009Holland Cotter refers to "Brandeis University?s disgraceful effort to dismantle its Rose Art Museum" and "the recent threat by the University of California, Los Angeles, to close its art library" and asks:"What can universities be thinking? They exist to support and protect exactly what their museums are doing: shaping the history of the future...
"Richard Love, a charismatic art dealer with a prominent Michigan Avenue gallery, has been sued before"
Posted on September 12, 2009"But the past two years have yielded a half-dozen lawsuits totaling at least $3 million that paint a picture of a man who reneges on promises, fails to make payments and stonewalls owners of artwork entrusted to him to sell."
Leibovitz Settlement
Posted on September 11, 2009Annie Leibovitz and Art Capital Group have resolved their dispute. The Art Market Monitor explains what happened.
"The entire work is about loss and memory"
Posted on September 11, 2009The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has a new exhibit up that takes as its subject the infamous 1990 theft there. You can read about it here. Gardner Heist author Ulrich Boser offers some thoughts here.
"This was a very clean crime. For some reason they had an interest in this collection"
Posted on September 11, 2009The New York Times reports that "a multimillion-dollar collection of artwork by Andy Warhol was stolen from the home of a wealthy art collector in West Los Angeles last week." There were "several other valuable works of art" in the home, but "none of those were disturbed," according to the police.
"The Southampton City Council has decided to sell parts of its permanent collection"
Posted on September 10, 2009Derek Fincham discusses a case of deaccessioning in the UK. He says "if we were to apply the current rules of the AAMD to this sale, the sale would be perfectly acceptable would it not? These works do not fall within the scope of Southampton's collection...
Roerich Arrest
Posted on September 10, 2009The second stolen Roerich painting has been recovered, and a Brooklyn couple arrested after trying to sell it to an undercover police officer. The New York Post has the story here. New York magazine: "When Trying to Sell Your Stolen Painting, Leave Out the ?Stolen? Part...
"Guaranteed to upset more than a few people on both sides of the Barnes battle"
Posted on September 10, 2009Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Stephen Rea from the Toronto Film Festival:"Of particular interest to Philadelphia-area residents, and art lovers the world over, is Don Argott's The Art of the Steal, a conspiracy theory-documentary about the Barnes collection and its controversial move from Merion to a new site on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway...
"Navigating the Deaccessioning Crisis"
Posted on September 10, 2009Speaking of Derek Fincham, he's posted a working manuscript of his soon to be published law review article on deaccessioning. Here his summary:"My proposal has three parts. First, the unnecessary restriction on deaccession proceeds should be eliminated...
A Closer Look at the Leibovitz-Lavazza Lawsuit
Posted on September 09, 2009From Daryl Lang at Photo District News.
"It hopes its existence will prove a 'crucial step' in the fight against the flourishing illegal trade"
Posted on September 08, 2009The Guardian has more on the Interpol online stolen art database.
Rose Update
Posted on September 08, 2009In the Brandeis Justice, Alana Abramson has the latest on the Rose lawsuit. There was a case management conference on Sept. 1. It's on a fairly fast track. The university will be filing a motion to dismiss by Sept. 15; the plaintiffs will be moving for a preliminary injunction by the same date...
A Long Beach Question
Posted on September 08, 2009Felix Salmon wonders why the Long Beach Museum of Art would run the risk of losing half a million dollars a year in operating support from the city by failing to repay the $3 million loan the city says it owes:"I find that hard to understand: it should just take the $569,000 and use some fraction of it to pay off the $3 million over time, spending the rest on art and programming...
Another Leibovitz Lawsuit
Posted on September 07, 2009Italian photographer Paolo Pizzetti has sued Annie Leibovitz for copyright infringement in federal court in New York, alleging that she used his work without permission in an ad campaign she did for Lavazza coffee. BBC News story here.
More Park West
Posted on September 05, 2009The National Law Journal reports that Park West Gallery is facing a seventh lawsuit:"The lawsuit, filed Aug. 26 in federal court in Detroit, alleges that a Park West appraiser ... conspired with the gallery to destroy the reputation of Fine Art Registry, which is investigating the gallery for alleged deceptive practices...
Long Beach Update
Posted on September 05, 2009Interesting twist in the Long Beach Museum of Art story mentioned earlier in the summer here. Back in June, it was reported that "in 1999, the [museum] launched a campaign to obtain funds for construction of a new two-story exhibition pavilion" and, "under the [1999] agreement, the city promised to accept liability for the bond debt if the foundation could not pay it off...
"The investigation into Kozlowski?s illicit activities was triggered by his art buying activities"
Posted on September 04, 2009Former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski is back in the news. Lindsay Pollock reminds us where his troubles started.
Back in play?
Posted on September 03, 2009For a while there, it seemed President Obama's idea to limit charitable deductions was off the table. But the Wall Street Journal reports today that "the main proposal getting renewed attention" from Senate Democrats is one to "limit the federal tax deductions for higher-income families for mortgage interest and other widely claimed purposes, said two senior Senate Democratic aides...
Cleveland Kerfuffle
Posted on September 02, 2009Lee Rosenbaum calls attention to The Cleveland Museum of Art's recent request for court permission to "use for a period years a portion of the income from two charitable trusts and two endowment funds to assist with the funding of the renovation and expansion of its facilities" (Complaint paragraph 2)...
"Few things are more alluring than the vision of a dark mind hanging on the wall"
Posted on September 01, 2009Newsweek on "criminal art" (not work so bad there should be a law against it, but work by prisoners).
"Can the art trade do more to reform its own practices?"
Posted on September 01, 2009Derek Fincham has more on the San Francisco dealer indicted for selling fake Miro prints, mentioned earlier here. Related thoughts from Derek here.
"All we really have is our word"
Posted on August 29, 2009New Mexico's KRQE reports that "a woman who sold two paintings to an Albuquerque art dealer-appraiser for $4,500 later auctioned for $661,000 won a cash settlement in court this week after alleging she had been defrauded." That's a slightly misleading way of putting it: it makes it sound as if the dealer-appraiser bought them at $4,500 and turned around and re-sold them for the $661,000, when, in fact, according to the story, he sold them for $35,000, and they then "passed hands two more times" and eventually sold at auction for the larger figure...
"The question is simply why there?s such anger"
Posted on August 28, 2009An "honest question" from the Art Market Monitor for "the vocal opponents of deaccessioning." (The subject this time is Robin Pogrebin's recent NYT piece on "turnkey" museum exhibitions organized by corporations. Judith Dobrzynski, Ed Winkleman, and Derek Fincham all commented on the story earlier in the week...
More on the Peters Gallery Lawsuit
Posted on August 27, 2009Josh Baer gets a statement from the Gerald Peters Gallery on the lawsuit mentioned here: "This lawsuit appears to be grounded in nothing more than buyers remorse, likely brought about by the economic downturn. Neither the facts nor the law support the claims made...
Found (but maybe never lost)
Posted on August 27, 2009Yesterday, Derek Fincham flagged a story that a Picasso painting "which was looted by an Iraqi soldier during the 1990 invasion of Kuwait has been recovered by Iraqi security forces." Today comes news that maybe it's not a Picasso after all: "The painting has a tag on the back with several misspellings that says it was sold by 'the louvre' to 'the museum of kuwait,' with the words Louvre and Kuwait in lower case...
No Nudes at the Met
Posted on August 27, 2009A 26-year-old model was arrested yesterday after posing naked for a photo shoot in the arms and armor room of the Met. She was charged with two crimes: endangering the welfare of a minor and public lewdness. The photographer, Zach Hyman, has not been charged...
Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!
Posted on August 26, 2009The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that "the University of Iowa has established an envisioning committee to consider options for the future of the UI Museum of Art, the university announced Tuesday."Derek Fincham sums up the state of play: "So, we have a situation where it is not possible to return the works to the original, flood-prone museum; and paying for a new museum will be difficult...
"Ruling is a setback for sports artist"
Posted on August 26, 2009The Tuscaloosa News has the latest in Daniel Moore's lawsuit with the University of Alabama, now in its fifth year and on its fifth judge.
"I won?t let anyone treat me like this" (UPDATED)
Posted on August 26, 2009Bloomberg has more on the lawsuit by Moscow dealer Gary Tatintsian against Luhring Augustine Gallery, mentioned last week here.UPDATE: Some thoughts on the story from the Art Market Monitor: "Nobody likes to be treated like they?re second in line."
"Ye gods, man, you're accused of what, making a million and a half bucks by ripping off who, a bunch of nuns?"
Posted on August 26, 2009In the Maine Antique Digest, David Hewett has the latest twist in the story of the nuns and their $2 million Bouguereau, mentioned earlier here and here.
Wildenstein Dismissal Affirmed
Posted on August 25, 2009Back in Sept. 2007, I mentioned the dismissal of a state court lawsuit against Guy Wildenstein. The Appellate Division has now affirmed, but, interestingly, two judges wrote separate dissents.The case concerns an appraisal Wildenstein wrote and which the plaintiff claims overstated the value of the work...
"Bartering may be the answer to bail us out of our current crisis"
Posted on August 25, 2009Lindsay Pollock points to a "no money art show" this weekend in Chelsea -- Art4Barter. The press release explains: "No works shall be sold for money but rather for services and goods. The exact service or good that the artist requires will be on the label next to their art...
Rose Update
Posted on August 25, 2009Brandeis student newspaper The Justice has more on the transfer earlier this month of the Rose lawsuit from the Massachusetts Supreme Court to the (less supreme) probate court.The University's lawyer, former Massachusetts AG Thomas Reilly, is quoted as saying:"The Rose Art Museum is open...
Barnes Doc
Posted on August 24, 2009This year's New York Film Festival lineup includes The Art of the Steal: "Bound to be controversial, this thought-provoking documentary explores the travails of the legendary Barnes collection of art masterworks and the foundation set up to protect it [and] raises vital questions about public vs...
The Stealth Brodsky Bill
Posted on August 21, 2009Lee Rosenbaum reports that the NY State Board of Regents has released its Proposed Permanent Amendment to its deaccessioning rules. Lee summarizes:"This amendment ... would prohibit use of deaccession proceeds for operating expenses, payment of outstanding debt, or capital expenses (other than those for historic buildings designated as part of an institution's collection)...
Dealer Defamation Suit
Posted on August 21, 2009Private dealer Paul Rusconi is suing actress Claire Forlani for defamation: "On July 27 of this year, Forlani allegedly ... sent out a mass email claiming Rusconi was selling art work that he knew had been forged 'and that he routinely defrauded his clients by vastly overcharging for the works he sold to them...
As old as the Eden tree
Posted on August 21, 2009Lots of stories about fakes in the news lately.Derek Fincham points to a story in ARTnews "on the slew of Russian avant-garde paintings which were alleged to be fake." One expert is quoted as saying: "There are more fakes than genuine pictures."Fom the AP: "German police have confiscated hundreds of bronze and plaster statues alleged to be the works of Alberto Giacometti and arrested an art dealer and two others on suspicion of selling the fakes across the globe...
"A large number of art attackers appear to be several sandwiches short of the full picnic"
Posted on August 21, 2009Inspired by "the recent assault on the Mona Lisa with the unlikely weapon of a teacup," Bloomberg's Martin Gayford asks: "Why do people attack art?"On some legal issues surrounding art vandalism, see here.
"The case is still something of a mystery"
Posted on August 21, 2009Soon-to-be movie-star Richard Lacayo on the 98th anniversary of The Great Mona Lisa Heist.
No Less Than Three
Posted on August 20, 2009Artnet News notes that Josh Baer might have to start a new newsletter devoted just to legal news:"His Aug. 18 issue, for instance, featured items on no less than three legal actions: a dispute involving Gateway Computer founder Norman Waitt over some paintings he acquired from Gerald Peters Gallery; a lawsuit by Moscow dealer Gary Tatintsian against Luhring Augustine Gallery over the sale of a dozen George Condo paintings for $4...
"How could this happen to Annie Leibovitz?"
Posted on August 19, 2009The Atlantic Wire has a roundup of commentary on the Annie Leibovitz mess.
Live With It
Posted on August 19, 2009"An art collector claims that in the course of spending $10 million with the Gerald Peters Gallery, they developed a deal in which he could 'live with' art for a while to decide if he wanted to keep it, and if not, he could return it for a refund or 'art of equivalent value...
Stolen Art Database
Posted on August 18, 2009Derek Fincham notes that INTERPOL is putting its stolen art database online. Says Derek: "This is a remarkable development in a number of ways, and makes it possible for anyone to search. This means it will be far more difficult for a buyer to claim he or she did not have the resources to check into a work's history...
Leibovitz Update
Posted on August 18, 2009This week's New York magazine has a lengthy story on Annie Leibovitz's legal troubles. Felix Salmon says "Art Capital did not ... simply have $24 million lying around when it extended the loan to Leibovitz. As a result, it sold part of the loan to other investors, including Goldman Sachs...
"Where do you draw the line between critique or parody and outright exploitation?"
Posted on August 16, 2009In the NYT Week in Review section today, Charles McGrath discusses the legal issues surrounding literary prequels and sequels, including the Salinger case currently on appeal to the Second Circuit:"Mr. Salinger, who is 90 and went all the way to the United States Supreme Court in the late 1980s to stop the biographer Ian Hamilton from quoting from his work, has just won another legal battle, halting the publication of '60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye,' a sequel to 'The Catcher in the Rye,' by Fredrik Colting, a Swede who for some reason writes under the name J...
"The dispute raises questions about the obligation of a state government with finite resources to uphold the artistic vision of a public memorial"
Posted on August 16, 2009Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento spots a threatened VARA suit in Washington State involving a World War II memorial sculpture. According to a local news report, artist Simon Kogan "says that overaggressive cleaning in May 2007 damaged the memorial .... He has demanded that the state agency fix the damage or he will sue...
Roerich Return
Posted on August 15, 2009Art Theft Central's Mark Durney breaks the news that one of the two works recently stolen from the Nicholas Roerich Museum was returned, in an "ordinary yellow, padded envelope, with a Brooklyn return address."
Lloyd Webber Dismissal Affirmed
Posted on August 15, 2009The Appellate Division has affirmed the dismissal, on standing grounds, of a lawsuit against the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation by a man who claimed his great-uncle was forced by the Nazis to sell a Picasso painting now owned by the foundation. I discussed the lower court decision here...
"Once again, he insisted he favors limiting charitable deductions for high earners, but admitted Congress opposes it."
Posted on August 13, 2009Joan Walsh at Salon.com.
Still More on the Roerich Thefts
Posted on August 11, 2009From Art Theft Central's Mark Durney here and here: "Why are the police only publicizing the thefts now? Also, if the museum receives only approximately 35 visitors a day, then have investigators attempted to track who visited on Wednesday, June 24 and Sunday, June 28?"Background here.
Arts Programming Cuts
Posted on August 11, 2009The top story in the NYT Arts section today tells how "tens of thousands of students at public and private colleges and universities around the country will find arts programs, courses and teachers missing ? victims of piercing budget cuts ? when they descend on campuses this month and next...
Fractional Gift News
Posted on August 11, 2009The Wall Street Journal reports that "reacting to museums' complaints of sharp declines in art donations, a bill announced Friday by Sen. Charles Schumer ... could revive the practice of so-called fractional gifts."Some brief background is probably in order...
Not Off To A Great Start
Posted on August 07, 2009The Boston Herald reports that "the [Massachusetts] Supreme Judicial Court won?t hear the lawsuit filed by three top Rose Art Museum patrons against Brandeis University .... The SJC transferred the case to the Suffolk probate court."
"We were always more oriented toward prevention"
Posted on August 07, 2009More from the NYT on the Roerich Museum thefts. Derek Fincham says "such a small museum is a good target for art thieves as it may not have sophisticated security systems, and limited visitors who may notice a theft."
"How does any of this jibe with the penchant for the public?s access and right to art?"
Posted on August 05, 2009The Art Market Monitor: De-accessioning Double Standard.
Is art theft the third-largest criminal enterprise?
Posted on August 05, 2009Derek Fincham considers the question here.
"If someone steals your car you can go get another one, but with a painting you can't replace it"
Posted on August 05, 2009From the New York Post: "Brazen art thieves swiped two Russian masterpieces right off the walls of an Upper West Side museum in separate heists that police are finding as hard to decipher as an abstract painting. A cop who happened to be visiting the museum was the first to notice a work was missing from the Nicholas Roerich Museum on West 107th Street near Riverside Drive...
Another Museum Embezzlement
Posted on August 05, 2009This time by a bookkeeper for the Tucson Museum of Art, to the tune of $975,000 over five-years. Previous museum-embezzlement stories here, here, here, and here.
"We imagine that the first hurdle the three plaintiffs will face is a challenge by Brandeis University to their standing"
Posted on August 05, 2009The Charity Governance Blog's Jack Siegel on the recently filed Rose lawsuit:"Under general principles of charity law, the [plaintiffs] probably lack standing: Donors lack standing. ... The donors may ... be able to argue special interest standing, but the Massachusetts Attorney General is aware of and, according to the plaintiffs' own pleadings, has been involved in the dispute...
"These books seem to cover everything an art professional might need to know"
Posted on August 05, 2009In The L Magazine, Paddy Johnson reviews Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber?s Art/Work: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career and Jackie Battenfield?s The Artist?s Guide. I mentioned the former before here.
More on the Bull Suit
Posted on August 04, 2009Nick Obourn: "The irony behind this, of course, is if Random House loses the lawsuit, the title of the book (A Colossal Failure of Common Sense) will have a deeply regretful double meaning."
"The city's attorneys set Clearwater on a path that led to unnecessary expense, public ridicule and losses in court"
Posted on August 01, 2009The St. Petersburg Times editorial board on the fish mural suit.
Balancing Act
Posted on July 31, 2009Eric Felten writes in the Wall Street Journal on the National Portrait Gallery-Wikipedia dispute:"Copyright law exists for a purpose: to make creativity pay. Making accurate photographic copies of paintings is no doubt valuable and involves painstaking work...
"I have to be honest?I don?t like the sound of this"
Posted on July 31, 2009Paddy Johnson wonders about the strength of the Rose lawsuit.
Forgery Suit
Posted on July 30, 2009Josh Baer: "ACA Galleries Inc have sued Joseph Kinney alleging that he sold them a Milton Avery painting 'Summer Table Gloucester' for $200,000 in 2007 that was a forgery. They assert that Kinney actually bought the work for $65,000 from Angela Hamblin who had been convicted of other art forgeries...
Another Bull Suit
Posted on July 30, 2009Arturo Di Modica, who created the famous "Charging Bull" sculpture near Wall Street, has sued Random House and the authors of a new book about the collapse of Lehman Brothers for using the sculpture on the book's cover without permission. Story here. Previous suit mentioned here.
Leibovitz Suit
Posted on July 30, 2009Art Capital Group is suing photographer Annie Leibovitz. Story in the NYT City Room blog here. The Art Market Monitor has more. Art Capital's loans to Leibovitz were mentioned in a front-page NYT story on art-based lending back in February.
Clearwater Cuts Bait
Posted on July 29, 2009The city of Clearwater, Florida has agreed to pay $55,000 to settle the fish mural first amendment case mentioned earlier here. The bait shop owner gets to keep his mural up; the money goes to the ACLU.
"Another day, another deaccession controversy"
Posted on July 28, 2009Daniel Grant has the latest in the Maine Antique Digest. It involves the St. Augustine Historical Society, which apparently "maintains a collection of documents, maps, photographs, and other printed material about the history of St. Augustine (the oldest city in the U...
More on the Rose Complaint
Posted on July 28, 2009I've now had a chance to read the Rose complaint. It's no easy task. It's 12 pages long, but then they attach about 140 pages of various exhibits -- and they just kind of dump it all there, with no real effort to tie the documents back to the specific allegations in the complaint...
Rose Suit
Posted on July 27, 2009The NYT's Randy Kennedy reports that "three overseers of the Rose Art Museum filed suit Monday in state court in Massachusetts, seeking to halt Brandeis University's plans to close the museum and clear the way to sell some of its work."I haven't read the complaint yet (you can do so here), but keep in mind that the latest version of the plan is not to "close" the Rose but instead to turn it into "a teaching and exhibition gallery...
"Knowledge, Labor, Property"
Posted on July 27, 2009Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento gets a few things off his chest regarding copyright ("It's time that U.S. courts put an end to the belief by many that it's ok to make a bountiful living off the work of someone else") and deaccessioning ("While museums continue to suffer closings, layoffs and cutbacks, the College Art Association initiates an anti-deaccessioning petition...
Come On In
Posted on July 27, 2009I missed this before the weekend, but apparently the court granted Mannie Garcia's motion to intervene in the Shepard Fairey-AP lawsuit.
" . . . and some are even closing"
Posted on July 25, 2009The Deaccessioning Blog points to a USA Today story under the headline "Museums' funding sources going bone dry" and quips: "Continue those anti-deaccessioning petitions!"As I've said before, if only these museums had a source of revenue to tap into when times got tough.
Speaking of the Catcher in the Rye decision ...
Posted on July 25, 2009The New York Times reports that the plaintiff has appealed Judge Batts's no-fair-use decision. You can read the appellate brief here. At the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Ashby Jones says "it?s pretty clear that [the plaintiff's] lawyers understand that the case will likely turn on [the] 'transformative' issue": the brief "focuses to a large degree on this 'transformation' idea, largely by highlighting the degree to which [the book] allegedly comments on Salinger?s relationship to the novel and the Holden Caulfield character itself...
"There's reason to believe here that not just any old photo would have sufficed"
Posted on July 23, 2009Southwestern Law School's Dave Fagundes has an interesting post up at Prawfsblawg that goes to the Gaylord discussion just below, but is really more about the Fairey-AP dispute, so I thought I'd give it its own post. It's about the fourth fair use factor -- "the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work...
Is Pretty Convincing Convincing Enough?
Posted on July 23, 2009University of Detroit Mercy Law School Professor Peter Friedman says my post on the Gaylord stamp decision is "ridiculous" and (possibly) "disingenuous." I wrote that the case is a good example of "how you can make the traditional four-factor fair use analysis do whatever you want it to do," and I cited Judge Kozinski's comment that "the analysis can always go in either direction...
"I've always thought it wise to be a bit skeptical of anyone claiming the high-road in serving public interest . . ."
Posted on July 23, 2009". . . especially when they're potentially being sued," says Ed Winkleman in response to the Wikipedia-National Portrait Gallery dispute. Lots of interesting points by Joy Garnett in the comments too.
"Who Buys Art on a Cruise Ship?"
Posted on July 22, 2009The Art Market Monitor flags another Park West Galleries story and says: "Though there?s no excuse for buying art on the say-so of a dealer who tells you it is a great investment, the cruise ships should be ashamed of their willingness to embrace this confidence game...
ARCA News
Posted on July 22, 2009The New York Times had a story today on the master?s program in international art crime studies being sponsored by ARCA (the Association for Research Into Crimes Against Art). Derek Fincham, who's one of the teachers in the program, offers some reflections here and here...
"I could design a museum where there would be almost no risk of theft, but it wouldn?t be fun to visit"
Posted on July 21, 2009Bloomberg reports that the Picasso sketchbook stolen in June still hasn't been recovered, and places the theft in the context of "several French arts institutions to have been robbed or vandalized recently."
Fairly Useless
Posted on July 21, 2009Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento points to a strange case in the Court of Federal Claims which ruled that a postage stamp featuring a photograph of a sculpture was a fair use. The Court held that the stamp was "transformative, providing a different expressive character than [the sculpture]...
"Wikipedia painting row escalates"
Posted on July 21, 2009That's the BBC News headline on the story mentioned last week here.The deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation (which runs Wikipedia) says: "It is hard to see a plausible argument that excluding public domain content from a free, non-profit encyclopaedia serves any public interest whatsoever...
"We reverse the trial court?s finding that the Georgia O?Keeffe Museum has standing"
Posted on July 16, 2009"We also reverse the trial court?s finding that the gifts to the University were motivated by a specific charitable intent instead of a general charitable intent, the finding that the University cannot establish that it is entitled to cy pres relief, and the order dismissing the Amended Petition of the University for cy pres relief...
Sotomayor and Photography
Posted on July 16, 2009The NYT's David Dunlap discusses another art law connection for Judge Sotomayor. Related post here.
ALR Acquisition
Posted on July 16, 2009"The Art Loss Register (ALR) announced the acquisition of the register of stolen art and antiques from Trace, a subsidiary by MyThings which will become a minority shareholder in the ALR."
Bridgeman Two?
Posted on July 16, 2009The Guardian reports that London's National Portrait Gallery "has threatened legal proceedings" against a US resident "who downloaded thousands of high-resolution images from its website, and placed them in an archive of free-to-use images on Wikipedia...
More on the Fisk Decision
Posted on July 16, 2009More on the Court of Appeals decision in the Fisk-O'Keeffe case from Diverse magazine here and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog here. The latter characterizes the decision as holding "that Fisk owns O?Keeffe?s work at this point and therefore is free to do what it wants with its 101-piece, $60-million collection," but, as noted yesterday, that isn't quite right...
"Daniel Moore and the Neverending Lawsuit"
Posted on July 14, 2009The Tuscaloosa News brings us up to date on the lawsuit between the University of Alabama and sports artist Daniel Moore. The short version: "Now, the case may be close to reaching its sixth judge, and attorneys are back to arguing over year-old motions...
"It had to be someone who knew me, knew my house and possibly knew my habits"
Posted on July 13, 2009"Burglars broke into [a Texas] home on June 23 and stole a dozen pieces of art from a who's who of 19th and 20th century artists: Pablo Picasso, French post-impressionist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, early abstractionist Paul Klee and Alexander Calder ...
The AP-Fairey Case Just Got Even More Interesting
Posted on July 13, 2009The American Lawyer reports that "freelance photographer Mannie Garcia, represented by Boies, Schiller & Flexner partner George Carpinello, filed a memorandum of law in federal district court in Manhattan seeking to intervene in the dispute that so far has pitted The Associated Press against artist Shepard Fairey...
Charitable Deductions Update
Posted on July 11, 2009A NYT story today on the apparent "collision course" between House and Senate Democrats "over how to pay for a sweeping overhaul of the nation?s health care system" notes that "the president, in his initial budget, had called for capping certain deductions, including those for charitable contributions, at the 28 percent income tax bracket, an idea initially rejected by a number of Democrats in Congress," but says that "some lawmakers who opposed Mr...
Fairey Guilty Plea
Posted on July 11, 2009The AP reports that Shepard Fairey "was sentenced to two years' probation Friday after pleading guilty to three vandalism charges. Prosecutors dropped 11 other charges. [Fairey] pleaded guilty in Boston Municipal Court to one charge of defacing property and two charges of wanton destruction of property under $250, all misdemeanors...
"The museum violated no formal rules, but both we and the art world wish its leaders had exhibited more prudence, openness and collegiality"
Posted on July 09, 2009The LA Times editorial board on the OCMA private sale.
"Artists hold applause for Obama"
Posted on July 08, 2009Politico looks at the Obama administration's approach to the arts so far.Judith Dobrzynski is quoted as saying: "Obama had a well-defined arts policy and a task force during the transition, so expectations in the arts community rose very high. They disappointed people by not having an arts czar...
Salinger and Prince
Posted on July 07, 2009A reader points out that Deborah Batts, the Judge who just blocked publication of a Catcher in the Rye sequel, is also the Judge in the Richard Prince infringement lawsuit. So is there anything in the Catcher opinion that gives us any insight into how Judge Batts is likely to rule in the Prince case?The opinion walks through the four-factor fair-use analysis pretty methodically, relying fairly heavily on quotes from other fair use cases...
Roxanna Brown Settlement
Posted on July 07, 2009Seattle Times: "The federal government has agreed to pay $880,000 to settle a lawsuit filed over the death of Roxanna Brown, an Asian-antiquities expert who died last year while being held at [a] Federal Detention Center."For background on Brown, see here.
More Opportunity Cost (A Continuing Series)
Posted on July 06, 2009Over the weekend came news that the Albright-Knox would now be open only four days a week.Other cost-cutting measures include (1) eliminating extended hours on Thursday evenings, (2) reducing programming on free Fridays, and (3) reducing the number of major exhibitions...
"In the US, the practice of 'deaccessioning' is more prevalent and even major institutions buy and sell robustly"
Posted on July 04, 2009Robustly.But remember: "once an object falls under the aegis of a museum, it is held in the public trust, to be accessible to present and future generations."
How Best to Remove Objects from the Public Trust
Posted on July 03, 2009Daniel Grant examines the question in the Wall Street Journal. One the one hand, those concerned with keeping artworks in the public trust should favor private sales to other museums. But the hysteria that surrounds deaccessioning tends to push people to auction:"In most cases, museums prefer going to auction...
Stimulating
Posted on June 29, 2009Felix Salmon calls for "a massive increase in federal arts funding."
Another Scream Sentence
Posted on June 29, 2009The New York Times: "A man who admitted his role in the theft of the Edvard Munch painting 'The Scream' was sentenced Monday to two and a half years in prison by a court in Oslo .... The man, Bjoern Hoen, 41, had been found guilty by a Norwegian appeals court of providing the getaway vehicle that was used in the daytime heist...
Charitable Deductions Update
Posted on June 26, 2009The New York Times had a story today on the possibilities for paying for President Obama's health care proposal. It includes the following:"Limit income-tax deductions for high earners. This is Mr. Obama?s main idea for raising revenue, but Congress is not likely to pass it except in a greatly scaled-down form...
"Let museums sell art if they must"
Posted on June 26, 2009The editors of the Schenectady Gazette come out against the Brodsky Bill:"Indeed, cultural institutions should only turn to [deaccessioning] as a last resort. But when it comes to selling a painting or similar asset to keep the doors open or pay the curator?s salary, they ? like any other business ? should have the right...
"I believe it ignores the dire realities that museums like the Albany Institute of History & Art face every day"
Posted on June 25, 2009Move over, Hugh Davies. Move over, Richard Armstrong. Here comes Christine Miles, director of the Albany Institute of History & Art, writing in opposition to the Brodsky Bill in the Albany Times Union:"Does it make any sense to prevent the deaccessioning of works which then won?t be enjoyed by the public because the institution that houses it can?t afford to keep its doors open? I don?t think so...
Debating Deaccessioning II
Posted on June 24, 2009I have a piece in the summer issue of The Art Newspaper on deaccessioning. It should all sound pretty familiar to regular readers of the blog, but it was nice to have the opportunity to lay out some of the arguments in a more sustained way and for a different audience...
"A perfect mess with a long, dismal aftermath"
Posted on June 23, 2009In this week's Time, Richard Lacayo looks back on the 20th anniversary of the "Mapplethorpe Wars," including the criminal obscenity trial in Cincinnati: "Make no mistake, the battle over Mapplethorpe resulted in sustained harm to arts funding in the U...
"Who is this 'public' we keep hearing about?"
Posted on June 23, 2009The Deaccessioning Blog on this morning's NYT story on the Brodsky Bill.
It's Back
Posted on June 22, 2009"US Copyright Register Marybeth Peters told Intellectual Property Watch that orphan works legislation is expected to be introduced within the next 10 days."A bunch of posts from the last go-round here.
Brodsky Bill Update
Posted on June 22, 2009Robin Pogrebin has the latest in the New York Times. She mentions the June 1 letter from "more than a dozen major cultural institutions" (including the Met, MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney) pleading with legislators to slow down. But Brodsky is unmoved: "the problem of deaccessioning is real and growing" and "the need for action is immediate...
"Is it a crime, or is it art?"
Posted on June 22, 2009The Christian Science Monitor on the "Barrel Monster."
The Long and short of it
Posted on June 21, 2009The big news just before the weekend was that the city of Long Beach was, according to an LA Times headline, "threatening" the Long Beach Museum of Art with the "sale of artwork."According to the Times, the city owns the museum and 1,400 works of art acquired prior to 1985...
"In fact Kinkade has ? justly ? won the vast majority of the lawsuits which have been brought against him"
Posted on June 21, 2009Felix Salmon says Thomas Kinkade is "bad, not evil": "The store owners ... lost money when ... the internet made secondary-market values of Kinkade?s work much more transparent. Suddenly, the enormous growth in past Kinkade sales was no longer a good thing: there were a lot of Kinkades to go around, and many of the buyers were people who bought on the assumption that their paintings would increase in value and they could make money on their investment...
"People can interpret them differently, but we did nothing outside the AAMD guidelines"
Posted on June 21, 2009The LAT's Mike Boehm spoke with Orange County Museum of Art director Dennis Szakacs, who, as far as I can tell, is the first museum director to come under fire for not following the Ellis Rule.
"Judge Slams MoMA, Guggenheim on Secret Holocaust Art Agreement"
Posted on June 18, 2009That's a headline from Bloomberg today. A few notes:1. The slamming in question took place in March. (Here's a NYT story at the time.) I'm not sure why it's news today. I guess the hook for the story is that the decision "has become the talk of the Holocaust restitution community...
More on the Picasso Sketchbook Theft
Posted on June 18, 2009Art Theft Central's Mark Durney on the recent theft from the Picasso Museum in Paris: "Its astonishing that given the desirability of works of art by Picasso and the tremendous sums of money the Picasso Museum has spent on sketches in the past that they would not have better security measures implemented protecting such a significant part of their collection...
Change of Heart
Posted on June 18, 2009Back in December, U.S. District Court Judge A. Howard Matz said Clint Arthur's action against Louis Vuitton "appears to be a misguided lawsuit."In April, a California state court judge dismissed a similar suit, calling it a "prime example" of "opportuntistic litigation...
Kinkade Loss
Posted on June 17, 2009The San Francisco Chronicle: "A federal appeals court has some dark news for the self-described 'Painter of Light,' Thomas Kinkade - it has restored an arbitration panel's $2.1 million award to two former gallery owners who say Kinkade's company duped them into investing their life's savings in a doomed enterprise...
"We are all reviewing what we are doing and asking are we doing enough"
Posted on June 16, 2009More from the Washington Post on museum security in the aftermath of the killing of a security guard at the Holocaust Museum last week.Related post here.
"Frequently these things are less than black and white"
Posted on June 16, 2009A lot of people seem very bothered by the news that the Orange County Museum of Art recently sold a group of 18 paintings. This time the trouble is not that the sales proceeds are to be used for something other than acquiring more art; rather, it's that the works were sold "to an undisclosed private collector," instead of at auction...
"Once it's accessioned into the collection, it cannot be deaccessioned unless it does not fit the museum's defined mission"
Posted on June 16, 2009Art in America's Stephanie Cash interviews NY Assemblyman Richard Brodsky about the Brodsky Bill.
"Well, perhaps no retirement account, but at least the faculty and staff will have an art collection!"
Posted on June 12, 2009The Deaccessioning Blog listens to a podcast interview with Jonathan Lee, chair of The Rose Art Museum's Board of Directors, and says:"When asked if there are any situations in which selling of artworks by a museum are warranted, Lee retreats into a familiar emotional response lacking any substantive rationale...
Security
Posted on June 11, 2009Ulrich Boser on the Holocaust Museum shooting and museum security: "Museums are, after all, museums. They suffer from a Catch 22. On one side, they have to show their treasures. On the other side, they have to protect them. ... Keep in mind that a museum can't pat down people before they come inside...
"The Childe Hassam transaction is the top count in the indictment"
Posted on June 10, 2009The latest on the Brooke Astor trial, from the New York Times.
"What I created was clearly a presidential poster?new colors, new slogan, totally stylized and idealized, and it doesn?t compete with the original"
Posted on June 10, 2009An interview with Shepard Fairey.
More Opportunity Cost
Posted on June 09, 2009The LAT's David Ng: "Eight museum exhibitions you won't be seeing in L.A. anytime soon."Related post here.
In Contempt
Posted on June 09, 2009From Courthouse News Service: "The 5th Circuit upheld a civil contempt order against an attorney who helped his client evade an asset freeze by selling a Picasso painting for $431,161."
Sketchbook Stolen
Posted on June 09, 2009From BBC News: "A sketchbook of 33 drawings by Pablo Picasso worth about [$11m] has been stolen from a museum in Paris, police have said. The theft from the Picasso Museum was discovered on Tuesday afternoon but the exact time and circumstances have yet to be determined...
"We can't save all our treasures"
Posted on June 08, 2009Harry Themal -- Delaware News Journal columnist since 1959 -- started out to write "a column deploring the decision by the Wilmington Library to deaccession ... its marvelous portfolio of 14 N. C. Wyeth paintings for 'Robinson Crusoe' and its 20 volumes of Edward Curtis photographs...
"Taking photographs of objects or people in plain view is not a crime"
Posted on June 08, 2009From seattlepi.com:"The City of Snohomish has settled with a University of Washington fine art professor arrested shortly after she was seen photographing power lines, the ACLU reports. According to a statement from the [ACLU], Shirley Scheier was driving home in October 2005 when Snohomish police stopped her car on state Route 9 and began questioning her about her 'suspicious' photography...
A different kind of "fake"
Posted on June 08, 2009From the New York Times: "A former payroll manager for the Brooklyn Museum stole more than $620,000 from the institution by issuing fake paychecks that were directly deposited into his bank account, according to court papers made public on Thursday. The former employee, Dwight Newton, 40, faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud if convicted...
Biscuitless
Posted on June 05, 2009The Deaccessioning Blog notes "at least three other reasons why anti-deaccessionists are wrong."Relatedly, The Art Newspaper has "identified over 20 important shows that have been axed (or, in a few cases, postponed) later this year or in 2010," which, they add, "almost certainly represents the tip of the iceberg...
More on the Wildflower Suit
Posted on June 05, 2009The Art Newspaper's Martha Lufkin on Chapman Kelley's 7th Circuit VARA appeal, discussed here last month.
Know when to fold 'em
Posted on June 05, 2009There've been some developments in Gregory Callimanopulos's suit against Christie?s over the reopening of the bidding for a Sam Francis painting last month. I discussed the suit here.On May 15, the court granted a TRO preventing Christie's from going ahead with the sale to the ultimate buyer (Eli Broad)...
"If deaccessioning does occur, let's hope that we do not have to follow the well-meaning but problematic practices of A6959"
Posted on June 05, 2009Peter Hirtle has the latest on the Brodsky Bill:"The good news: I assume in reaction to the concern expressed by museums, zoos, and libraries, the bill governing deaccessioning from museums was pulled from the Ways and Means committee's calendar on Tuesday...
"What does the bar owner owe the artist?"
Posted on June 05, 2009I'm quoted in this story by Jen Graves in The Stranger posing the above question.
"We are united in our belief that the public interest will be best served if the proposed measure is tabled at this time"
Posted on June 04, 2009A group of nonprofits -- including MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, and the Met -- urge Assemblyman Brodsky to slow down. You can read their (brief) letter here (courtesy of The Deaccessioning Blog).
"Too Important to Decide Immediately"
Posted on June 03, 2009Ed Winkleman "want[s] to know ... where [Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor] comes down on issues of free speech and in particular where that meets art." He discusses one case, "involv[ing] a sex offender on parole who was found with porn (a violation of his parole terms)...
ALR on a roll
Posted on June 03, 2009Last week it was some Egyptian artifacts. Now, "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today seized a Pompeii wall panel fresco from a Manhattan auction house that was reported stolen in Italy 12 years ago. The fresco panel, which was the subject of an international search by INTERPOL, was located by the Art Loss Register of New York and brought to the attention of ICE and Italian Authorities...
"Many art theft cases take years, decades, even more than a century, to crack"
Posted on June 03, 2009Ulrich Boser, author of a recent book on the Gardner theft, has a good piece in U.S. News on art crime more generally. It focuses mainly on the FBI's art theft team, but William Kingsland, Melvyn Kohn, and Dr. No all make appearances.
"This lack of transparency translates into the potential for illegal transactions"
Posted on June 03, 2009The ARCAblog is running a series of papers by students in Noah Charney's art crime class at Yale. Here's Elizabeth Sebesky, on How Lending Fuels Art Crime.
"Wark said prosecutors are still going forward with the other charges"
Posted on June 03, 2009Boston prosecutors have dropped 13 (or 14, depending on who you ask) vandalism charges against Shepard Fairey. Story here. "Prosecutors said Fairey still faces charges for 13 similar offenses, 10 in Boston Municipal Court?s Central Division and another three in the Brighton Division...
"While ostensibly about museums, the law could have a major impact on how libraries function"
Posted on June 01, 2009Cornell's Peter Hirtle is concerned with the potential impact of the Brodsky bill on libraries and archives:"The problem is that while the bill discusses the issue surrounding collecting in museums, it defines museums so broadly that most libraries and archives would fall under its sway...
Second Try
Posted on June 01, 2009From the LA Times Culture Monster blog: "Frank Romero, a noted muralist and pioneering Chicano painter, is suing Caltrans for painting over a mural he created along the Hollywood Freeway downtown in conjunction with the 1984 Olympics. ... Romero's suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, contends that sometime after June 1, 2007, a Caltrans work crew painted over his 102-foot-long, 20-foot-high mural, 'Going to the Olympics,' erasing it from a wall at Alameda Street...
Kokoschka Decision
Posted on June 01, 2009The New York Times: "A Massachusetts judge has ruled that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is the rightful owner of a 1913 Oskar Kokoschka painting being sought by a woman who said it was sold under duress during the Nazi occupation of Austria. In 2008 the museum filed suit to assert its ownership rights to the painting ...
More on the Warhol Decision
Posted on June 01, 2009Rebecca Tushnet has a good summary of the Warhol/Simon-Whelan decision mentioned here last week. More here from the Class Action Defense Blog. You can read the decision here.
Egyptian Artifacts Recovered
Posted on June 01, 2009"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recovered seven artifacts of Egyptian origin that were found at a Manhattan auction house. The ... items were stolen from the Bijbels Museum in Amsterdam on July 29, 2007 in the middle of the afternoon. ... The investigation received significant help from the Art Loss Register (ALR) of New York, an organization that maintains a database of stolen works of art...
Crunch
Posted on June 01, 2009Richard Lacayo has a good piece in the current Time on how the recession is affecting museums and other arts organizations. The whole thing is worth reading, but some highlights:"Endowments have shrunk everywhere, and sizable budget cuts have been the rule at museums in Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Diego...
"Why should local diggers break their backs and risk arrest when they could stay home and make a cottage industry out of copying ...?"
Posted on May 29, 2009The LAT's Mike Boehm has more on UCLA's Charles Stanish, author of the article I mentioned here.
"'People have to be practical. They have to be pragmatic. They have to stop being righteous"
Posted on May 28, 2009Move over, Hugh Davies. I think I have a new favorite museum director. Judith Dobrzynski calls attention to an interview Maxwell Anderson did with the Guggenheim's new director, Richard Armstrong:"[A]round the 40th minute, Max asks about deaccessioning...
Warhol Decision
Posted on May 28, 2009The NYT's Randy Kennedy reports that "a federal district judge in Manhattan said Tuesday that a class-action lawsuit charging fraud and other misconduct could proceed against the Andy Warhol Foundation and the board that authenticates Warhol's work. The suit was filed by a filmmaker, Joe Simon-Whelan, who bought a Warhol painting ? in 1989 only to see it later declared inauthentic on two occasions by the board ?...
"Copyright in the US is automatic on fixation of a creative work .... Registration is not necessary for basic copyright protection"
Posted on May 27, 2009Rebecca Tushnet notes a Washington Post story that "confus[es] 'registration' with 'copyright' almost every single time the word 'copyright' appears. ... It is misleading, and potentially quite damaging, to tell authors that 'a claim filed with the government offers legal protection -- it is the only way to stop someone else from copying a work...
"A case study ... in how not to make and implement hard decisions in the face of an economic crunch"
Posted on May 27, 2009Felix Salmon on "The Sorry Story of the Rose Art Museum":"Where are we now? Well, the Rose is essentially dead ? its donors have rescinded their pledges, artists are asking for artwork back, the director has been fired, and it has no chance of being able to raise a penny in new money any longer...
Update on the Brodsky Bill
Posted on May 27, 2009The NYCBA Art Law Committee recently sent a letter to Assemblyman Brodsky, regarding his proposed museum deaccessioning bill. You can read the letter here (courtesy of Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento).I'm opposed to the bill in its entirety -- I'm one of those who, as their letter puts it, "maintain that uniform restrictions on the use of deaccessioning proceeds may not neccessarily serve the best interest of the institutions or the public" -- like Christopher Knight, I think we can "trust [our] tax-subsidized museum professionals to use their art collections wisely and for [our] benefit" -- but, if we have to have the legislation, the Committee makes some good suggestions for making it a little less bad...
Raw Deals
Posted on May 27, 2009A reader sends a link to an odd story from the Central Pennsylvania Patriot-News, under the headline Raw deal: Pennsylvania artwork now under U.S. Postal Service copyright. Apparently the U.S. Postal Service is preventing certain publicly-funded New Deal artworks from being photographed, but if so, my guess is that they are doing so not because the work is "now under Postal Service copyright," but, rather, because it's on their property, and they aren't obligated to allow people onto their property to take pictures...
Deaccessioning as Settlement Tool
Posted on May 26, 2009Judith Dobrzynski reports that the National Gallery of Art "has just agreed to transfer the ownership of a painting on view there, Chaim Soutine's Piece of Beef, to the family of a prior owner" in settlement of a lawsuit. The suit "was brought by the estate of Lorette Jolles Shefner of Montreal against the National Gallery and Maurice Tuchman and Esti Dunow, the authors of the Soutine catalogue raisonné, about a year ago...
Symbolism
Posted on May 26, 2009Friend of the Barnes Evelyn Yaari responds via email to my post last week wondering what difference it would make if the Delaware River Port Authority rescinded its $500,000 in funding for the move to Philadelphia:"This particular grant is distinctive because it is public money and because the DRPA is a regional governmental body...
"When people say, 'You can't sell the art,' I say, 'OK, can we close five departments on campus?' Tell me what I can do. This is the problem"
Posted on May 26, 2009The Jerusalem Post had a lengthy piece this weekend on Brandeis and the Rose Museum, which "had come to embody the legacy of the postwar generation of American Jewish art collectors, many of them successful entrepreneurs who rose from immigrant tenements to university boards through sheer force of will and imagination...
"Institutions of every stripe are scrambling for survival in a recession draining them dry of funds"
Posted on May 26, 2009The Toronto Star had a piece this weekend on the deaccessioning debate. I'm quoted as follows:"So an argument exists against an art-for-art, AMMD-approved, deaccessioning-only model. Why can there never be any other 'use of proceeds,' wonders New York lawyer Donn Zaretsky, 'no matter how important to an institution's mission?' So here's the question: Might the sale of some lesser pieces by the Toronto school board help pave the way for the next Alex Baumann, who could train in the board's revitalized swimming pools...
Let's Go to the Videotape
Posted on May 26, 2009Bloomberg's Philip Boroff has more on collector Gregory Callimanopulos's lawsuit against Christie's (mentioned earlier here). In its response to Callimanopulos's motion for preliminary injunction, Christie's says "video recordings of the [May 13] Auction conclusively show that [another bidder] made a bid for the Artwork well before [the auctioneer] brought down the hammer ...
"We are absolutely at a point in this economy where these sort of things have to be on the table"
Posted on May 22, 2009Tamar Lewin in today's New York Times: "Brandeis University said this week that it would suspend payments to the retirement accounts of faculty and staff members starting in July."The article closes with the following:"Brandeis, founded in 1948 in Waltham, Mass...
Minor Sale
Posted on May 22, 2009The Art Market Monitor notes that one of the works involved in Halsey Minor's dispute with Sotheby's -- a Childe Hassam painting he bought for $3.9m last Fall, but refused to pay for after discovering that the auction house hadn't disclosed that it had an interest in another work he bought at the same time -- sold this week for $2...
Sold (UPDATED)
Posted on May 22, 2009Two of the three Eakins paintings -- or, as I like to think of them, works which, having fallen under the aegis of a museum, were held in the public trust, to be accessible to present and future generations -- the Hirshhorn recently announced it was deaccessioning were sold at Christie's this week and therefore will not be accessible to present and future generations...
Still Fighting
Posted on May 21, 2009The Philadelphia Bulletin reports that "opponents of moving the Barnes Foundation art collection from Merion to Philadelphia asked members of the Delaware River Port Authority ... to rescind $500,000 in funding for the move yesterday."It's not clear to me what impact this would have in any event...
"The treatment of consignment in bankruptcy has often been described as mystifying"
Posted on May 20, 2009Another good art-law related student note: Hilary Jay, "A Picture Imperfect: The Rights of Art Consignor-Collectors When Their Art Dealer Files For Bankruptcy," in the Duke Law Journal. She does a nice job showing what a mess the existing law is, and makes some suggestions for fixing things, including extending state statutory protections for artist-consignors to collector-consignors.
Art Theft Recs
Posted on May 20, 2009R.A. Scotti, author of the recently published "Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa" (see here), recommends some other books on art theft.
Bid Battle
Posted on May 19, 2009Bloomberg's Philip Boroff reports that "Gregory Callimanopulos, a shipping magnate and collector, said in a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court that Christie?s improperly reopened bidding for [a Sam Francis] painting ... after his $3 million telephone bid was accepted by the auctioneer...
"The Rose, as we have known it, is closing"
Posted on May 18, 2009Geoff Edgers stops by the Rose Museum on the last day of its "final curated exhibtions."
Difficult Choices
Posted on May 16, 2009One of the arguments Lee Rosenbaum likes to make against deaccessioning is the following:"Perhaps an analogy might help them understand what's really at stake. If someone were to suggest that funds be raised by selling important books from the library, that (one hopes) would be a non-starter: Books go to the core of the college's educational mission...
"We are not in the business of upsetting and alienating our donors and community"
Posted on May 16, 2009Interesting sidebar on the Montclair Art Museum deaccessioning: the museum has "decided not to auction off [a] 104-year-old portrait of one of its founders after his descendants complained that the memory of the Montclair civic leader was being disrespected...
"The second major art heist in 10 days in the Netherlands"
Posted on May 15, 2009Details here. Here was the first one. The Art Market Monitor says "both highlight the problems of security in small museums."
Chilly
Posted on May 15, 2009Back in November I mentioned a NY state court decision that I said "could have far-reaching implications for the auction houses." Judd Tully wrote about the case in the February Art+Auction, noting that it had "sent a chill down the collective spines of the major auction houses...
"Despite the promising effects of the TTCA, some disincentives to fractional giving still remain"
Posted on May 15, 2009Honorable mention in the 2009 Paul Faherty Tax Writing Competition for law students went to Kristina Gordon of Loyola-Chicago for her (cleverly titled) Where is My Monet? Museums and Donors Lose an Important Incentive for Fractional Giving. (I appreciate the props in various footnotes...
Davis Suit
Posted on May 15, 2009Josh Baer: "Earl Davis, the son of Stuart Davis, has sued dealer Michael Altman over 2 paintings. In the first he alleges that Altman never paid the estate on a $2 million sale to Alice Walton and the other is part of the Salander fiasco where he alleges Altman took a painting from Salander without proper title...
Fairly Straightforward
Posted on May 14, 2009The rigid formalism of the AAMD/AAM position on deaccessioning (sales to buy more art -- totally fine, knock yourself out; sales for any and all other reasons -- repulsive) leads its defenders to say some odd-sounding things, at least to my ear. Here's an example, from a story in the Newark Star-Ledger yesterday entitled "Sale of art linked to financial woes by Montclair museum sparks debate...
"This case has profound implications for artists' rights"
Posted on May 12, 2009Last fall I wrote about "another frustrating VARA decision," this time involving artist Chapman Kelley's Wildflower work in Chicago. Kelley has now filed his appellate brief with the Seventh Circuit, relying primarily on the grounds I described in my earlier post:1...
"An absence of clues meant an abundance of theories, and Scotti advances them all in a collection of arresting but disparate narratives"
Posted on May 12, 2009Yesterday's NYT Book Review included a review of "Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa," one of two new books on the 1911 crime (see earlier post here). You can read the first chapter of the book here. Another review from the Times here.
"Finding an answer of what's best to do with a valuable painting is difficult"
Posted on May 12, 2009The Wilmington Library in Delaware is selling 14 N.C. Wyeth illustrations "to pay for $5 million in major improvements." Story here. "No one is sadder than we are," says the president of the library's board of managers. "We love the paintings but we also love the building and want to keep the library in the building and make improvements in tough economic times...
Framing Art Vandalism
Posted on May 12, 2009An interesting student note by M.J. Williams in the Brooklyn Law Review arguing for legal recognition of art vandalism separate and distinct from other forms of vandalism. As a bonus, it includes an appendix of reported instances of art vandalism in public institutions over the last 30 years.
"Obama Continues to Promote Limits on Charitable Deductions"
Posted on May 12, 2009The Chronicle of Philanthropy has the latest.
"Ultimately the administration decided that the government should hold onto more tax revenue to improve health care"
Posted on May 07, 2009The director of the White House domestic policy council tells foundation officials that President Obama?s plan to limit charitable tax deductions "was hotly debated in the White House."
Third-Party Guarantee
Posted on May 07, 2009At Christie's last night, a Picasso was sold by Jerome Fisher, a founder of the footwear company Nine West and (according to the NYT's Carol Vogel) "a victim of the Bernard L. Madoff swindle," for $14.6 million. The WSJ's Kelly Crow adds some further detail:"Before the sale, the auction house had signed up outside investors to promise the seller of the Picasso a prearranged price for the painting...
MOCA Update
Posted on May 07, 2009The LA Times's Mike Boehm has an update on the California attorney general's investigation into LA MOCA's finances -- "the withered state of which became a running news story last November and December."
More Art-Related Bankruptcy News
Posted on May 06, 2009The Wall Street Journal reports: "The art lovers at a once high-flying subprime mortgage lender now under bankruptcy protection and California?s insurance regulator have settled their fight over collection of Ansel Adams prints. Fremont General Corp...
Salander Bankruptcy Compromise
Posted on May 06, 2009Bloomberg's Philip Boroff has the latest on the Salander bankruptcy: "Bank of America?s First Republic unit agreed to share proceeds from the sale of art with other creditors of the bankrupt Salander-O?Reilly Galleries LLC. The compromise was announced [Monday] in U...
On Repulsiveness
Posted on May 05, 2009In a post last night, I noted that, in his response to the interim report of the Future of the Rose Committee, Christopher Knight had asserted, without argument, that it is ethically "repulsive" to sell art and use the proceeds to pay for university expenses...
"Though sophisticated heists at museums garner big headlines, most art thefts in the United States occur in run-of-the-mill burglaries"
Posted on May 04, 2009The Kansas City Star had a story yesterday on the FBI art crime unit, which has recovered "more than 1,000 items worth more than $135 million."
"Generally, the donor?s recourse is to not make future gifts"
Posted on May 04, 2009NYT "Wealth Matters" columnist Paul Sullivan had a piece over the weekend on the "battles between dead donors and nonprofits [that] are increasing as the economy worsens." He says that "when the donor is alive, redirecting funds is simple: a charity asks and the donor agrees or disagrees...
On the Rose Report
Posted on May 04, 2009I've now had a chance to read the interim report of the Future of the Rose Committee, and I'm not sure it's right to describe it, as the Boston Globe did, as "a vote of confidence for the beleaguered administration."It is true that it begins by echoing the point I've made here on several occasions that "the Administration has changed its thinking in substantial ways":"Brandeis is not closing the Rose and selling all the art work, though we must say in the same breath: it remains a possibility that some will be sold...
Not a Dirty Word
Posted on May 01, 2009Both the New York Times and the Washington Post pick up the story of the Hirshhorn's deaccessioning of three Eakins portraits. The stories emphasize that the decision came after "a two-year assessment"; that the museum has 217 other works by Eakins; and that the three works have not been exhibited at the Hirshhorn since 1977...
"We assume that whatever decisions the board makes regarding such sales, there will remain a substantial collection of art"
Posted on May 01, 2009The Future of the Rose Committee issued an interim report today. The Boston Globe's Geoff Edgers has the story.
"Notably lacking has been a research tool for responding to claims by a foreign government that it owns specific works of art"
Posted on May 01, 2009The Art Newspaper's Martha Lufkin reports: "The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) has launched a website compiling foreign cultural property laws and other information affecting the ethics and legality of transferring cultural property...
There Ought To Be A Law
Posted on May 01, 2009The Art Market Monitor anticipates some art-related special legislation.
"I think that copyright comes into conflict with critical discourse"
Posted on May 01, 2009At the press preview for the Met's new "Pictures Generation" show, Lee Rosenbaum talks to curator/critic Douglas Crimp -- and sneaks a little art law into the conversation:"Q: How does this show relate to the Shepard Fairey controversy? "A: These were among the artists who tested the copyright laws and the whole notion of appropriating images became a kind of discourse, so younger artists could pick up on it very easily...
These Days, Every Potato Counts
Posted on April 30, 2009Josh Baer: "Solange Herter has sued Christie?s and Lisa Klapstock seeking title to a Calder collage that he alleges was stolen from him (this suit seems awfully small potatoes to come to NY Supreme Court)."
"Opportunistic litigation"
Posted on April 29, 2009When I first heard about Clint Arthur?s class action lawsuit against LA MOCA last summer, I wrote: "Leaving aside the question of what 'losses' [Arthur] has sustained, wouldn't the class have to be composed of only those buyers who are willing to return their prints in the condition they were received (in order to be eligible for damages under the statute)? And isn't it likely that, at the end of the day, that turns out to be a class of one?"It turns out I overcounted...
Put a Bow On It
Posted on April 29, 2009The lawsuit over Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen's "Collar and Bow" sculpture has settled. Mike Boehm has the story here. I mentioned the lawsuit about a year ago here.The terms of the settlement are confidential, but Oldenburg tells Boehm, "We were not at all penalized in any way, and did not have to pay any money...
"We're trying to figure out what exactly applies and what has taken place in the intervening 110 years"
Posted on April 28, 2009The Chicago Tribune: "Ramping up his campaign against the Art Institute of Chicago's pending 50-percent general admission increase, Ald. Ed Burke (14th) is trying to compel the museum to increase its free hours by enforcing an ordinance that is more than 100 years old...
Out from under the aegis
Posted on April 27, 2009Lee Rosenbaum makes an interesting find in the Montclair Art Museum bookstore.She also learns that the Hirshhorn is selling three Eakins paintings at Christie's.Remember: "once an object falls under the aegis of a museum, it is held in the public trust, to be accessible to present and future generations...
"Topic A, B, C, and D"
Posted on April 27, 2009The Philadelphia Inquirer's Stephan Salisbury previews this week's annual meeting of the American Association of Museums: "despite the multiplicity of interests and the range of institutional sizes and locations, there will be one thing on everyone's mind...
Loose Talk
Posted on April 27, 2009Richard Lacayo reviews two new books on the 1911 theft of Mona Lisa: "Unfortunately, the authors of both books have decided to pad out their texts by resurrecting an utterly unsubstantiated version of who might have been behind the heist."Related post here.
"[Sellers] just aren?t into gambling anymore and auctions are no longer a sure thing"
Posted on April 27, 2009Carol Vogel had a piece in yesterday's New York Times on the increase in private sales (at the expense of auctions): "For many sellers, the driving factor is fear. Fear that their friends will discover they need money. Fear that if a [work] does not sell at auction, it will be considered yesterday?s goods...
"Who Should Own the World's Antiquities?"
Posted on April 27, 2009Hugh Eakin examines the question in the New York Review of Books.
Montclairity
Posted on April 25, 2009Lee Rosenbaum heard back from the AAMD on the Montclair deaccessionings. They say everything is fine:"Placing funds derived from deaccessions in an endowment restricted only to acquisitions is entirely consistent with AAMD policy since the funds generated by such an endowment may only be used for acquisitions...
"What appears to be a misguided lawsuit"
Posted on April 24, 2009The LA Times had an update today on Clint Arthur's lawsuit against Louis Vuitton over the Murakami prints he bought in Jan. 2008 at the Louis Vuitton boutique that had been set up as part of the "Copyright Murakami" exhibition at L.A. MOCA.I took a quick look on PACER, and it seems Arthur is doing better in the press than he is in court...
"Can you legitimize some of the better street art without opening the door to any run of the mill, mindless graffiti?"
Posted on April 23, 2009More of Richard Lacayo's conversation with ICA Boston director Jill Medvedow. Previous post here.
"When people think of stolen art, you think of famous cases and what ends up in movies. It seems the bulk of stolen items are fairly low value."
Posted on April 23, 2009The Art Market Monitor interviews Art Loss Register General Counsel Chris Marinello.
What's the AAMD position on deaccessioning to resolve a lawsuit?
Posted on April 23, 2009The San Francisco Chronicle has the latest on the complicated Friede family lawsuits. Among other things, "[de Young] museum officials and [John] Friede agreed in March to auction off 76 items like masks, headrests and mortars. They expect to raise about $3...
Reijtenbagh Race
Posted on April 23, 2009Reuters reports that a second lawsuit has been filed involving Dutch businessman Louis Reijtenbagh's art collection -- this one in Amsterdam, by ABN AMRO: "[A] source, who is familiar with the Dutch bank's lawsuit ..., said it was triggered by another court case in New York lodged by JPMorgan Chase & Co ...
"A museum dedicated to the artist Henry Varnum Poor won?t open here for years, but already its collection is shrinking"
Posted on April 23, 2009Eve Kahn has the story in today's New York Times. Apparently, the town of Ramapo, N.Y. paid $1.3 million ("including $500,000 from the state") to buy Poor's home in a neighboring town a couple of years ago. (Poor died in 1970.) But it seems Poor's son, Peter, who is in his 80s, "still owns the contents of [the house], and he has begun selling major pieces or donating them to museums...
Some Data
Posted on April 23, 2009As a follow up to their interview with the Art Loss Register's Chris Marinello, the Art Market Monitor offers "a little bonus data," including the top ten stolen artists in the ALR database. No suprise that Picasso is way out in front. Dali is second, Miro third.
"The pie is shrinking"
Posted on April 23, 2009The Wall Street Journal has a story today on the search by "financially strapped" colleges for ways to find "the cash for urgent needs in a deep recession." It says "colleges posted average investment losses of 23% from July 1 to Nov. 30, and markets have fallen more since...
Does eBay reduce looting? (UPDATED)
Posted on April 23, 2009Derek Fincham points to an article in Archaeology magazine arguing that, contrary to what we might have expected, the rise of eBay has actually reduced antiquities looting. Economist Tyler Cowen summarizes: "Supply is so elastic, and so many fakes are made, that looting is less worthwhile than it used to be...
"There is a good deal of non-malevolent wishful thinking on the part of members of the art world"
Posted on April 23, 2009Inspired by the news that Italy paid $4.2 million last year to buy a small wooden crucifix that may (or may not be) by Michelangelo, ARCA's Noah Charney offers some thoughts on the value of art: "When it comes down to it, the value of works of art is a combination of authenticity, demand, and rarity?but the key to all components is that value equals perceived authenticity, plus perceived demand, plus perceived rarity...
"Let's move on from quibbling and have a substantive discussion about the opinions I expressed and the issues I raised"
Posted on April 22, 2009James Panero responds to Christopher Knight's response to his Wall Street Journal piece on the Montclair Art Museum deaccessioning: "In fact, the only 'hit job' is the one Knight decided to take out on me."He offers a summary of the "key points" of his argument, including: (1) "The Montclair art museum is engaging in a deaccessioning campaign"; (2) "this campaign is being done (in whole on in part?the ethics of the case are still the same) in order to back the museum's bonds"; and (3) "this raises a greater question--if museums are forbidden from collateralizing their bonds with the art on their walls, is it appropriate that they should be able to sell the art and use the proceeds to back their bonds?"That seems to me to be a fair, not at all malodorous question.
More on Montclair
Posted on April 21, 2009On the subject of olfactory testing, let me just add that I always found Carol Vogel's initial story on the Montclair deaccessioning a little odd. It began:"Like most museums around the country, the Montclair Art Museum ... is grappling with a dwindling endowment (a 25 percent decline since July) and rising operating costs...
"[A] greedy individual, with the advantage of a legal education and a claimed litigation experience, has initiated and maintained this lawsuit"
Posted on April 21, 2009The LegalTimes blog reports that the D.C. Circuit has upheld a district court ruling that "[a]n art dealer ... must pay more than $630,000 in attorney fees and expenses to Christie?s for a suit [the district court] judge said only served to harrass the auction house after it refused to sell a painting...
Charitable Deductions Update
Posted on April 20, 2009The New York Times: "President Obama is running into stiff Congressional resistance to his plans to raise money for his ambitious agenda .... The administration?s central revenue proposal ? limiting the value of affluent Americans? itemized deductions, including the one for charitable giving ? fell flat in Congress ...
"More than ever, it is vital to understand the value of art, but the quest to ascertain value is a complex endeavor"
Posted on April 20, 2009Beverly Schreiber Jacoby on art valuation in the NYLJ [$].
Another Park West Lawsuit (A Continuing Series)
Posted on April 20, 2009This one a class action in Federal District Court in Detroit.The Detroit News has the story.For previous installments, start here.
"It's the essay that doesn't pass the smell test"
Posted on April 18, 2009My friend Christopher Knight says James Panero's Wall Street Journal story earlier this week on the Montclair Art Museum deaccessioning is "at best misleading and, at worst, a clumsy hit job."
Rose to Stay Open (For Now)
Posted on April 17, 2009The NYT's Randy Kennedy reports that Brandeis has announced it "will allow its Rose Art Museum to remain open while its fate is being decided": "The decision was seen as a minor victory by opponents of the university?s plans, because it means the Rose will continue, for the time being, to remain subject to the laws and ethical codes that govern public museums and that place restrictions on the sale of works...
Who's more unclean? (UPDATED)
Posted on April 16, 2009Speaking of Shepard Fairey, he filed his answer to the AP's counterclaims this week. You can read it here. No real surprises. Probably the most interesting thing is a section (the "Fourth Defense," beginning on p. 21) arguing that the AP's claims "are barred ...
"In the case of graffiti, the ICA gave Shepard many sanctioned places in which to do outdoor work, so he didn't need to deface public property"
Posted on April 16, 2009Richard Lacayo has a little Q&A up with Jill Medvedow, the director of Boston's Institute of Contemporary Arts, which currently is hosting a Shepard Fairey show. Naturally some legal issues come up. She says Fairey's arrest on the night of the opening "was a highly choreographed event for maximum drama" -- "Shepard could have been easily found by the police before that night...
Further Fairey
Posted on April 15, 200910 new felony vandalism counts in Boston for Shepard Fairey. The AP says that "if convicted, Fairey faces up to three years in state prison."
"A load of hooey"
Posted on April 15, 2009Noah Charney reviews The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection: "While the account of the [1911] theft and recovery of the Mona Lisa is accurate and reasonably well-written, the supposed true crime conspiracy that the authors have uncovered and present in their work ...
Less Lex Situs
Posted on April 15, 2009Derek Fincham: How Adopting the Lex Originis Rule Can Impede the Flow of Illicit Cultural Property (32 Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts 111).
"The AAMD sees no problem with the way we are handling this situation"
Posted on April 15, 2009A number of people emailed me today about this story by James Panero in today's Wall Street Journal. It seems there is more to the Montclair Art Museum deaccessioning than was originally reported.ArtsJournal linked to the story using the following headline: "Via AAMD Loophole, Another Museum Monetizes Collection...
"The German government stands by its historical and moral responsibility"
Posted on April 13, 2009Germany has rejected Sir Norman Rosenthal's call for an end to Nazi restitution cases.
"I could be a really bad photographer, but in that case why did you use 30 of my pictures?"
Posted on April 13, 2009While I was defending the honor of Art in America's new editorial team last week, The Art Newspaper had a report on the status of the Richard Prince copyright lawsuit. Prince and Gagosian have answered Cariou's complaint, and now it's on to discovery...
Hot Pursuit
Posted on April 11, 2009One thing I did not mention in my reply to Christopher Knight's response to my Art in America piece was his reference, in an effort to show the shortcomings of my position, to the idea of a museum using sales proceeds to pay for "a boffo night out with your chums on the board...
Sustainability
Posted on April 09, 2009For those looking for a "sustained argument" for loosening the rules against deaccessioning, let me recommend Chapter 3 of economist Bruno Frey's Arts & Economics. The chapter is titled "For Art's Sake - Open Up the Vaults," and it begins:"Museums keep a substantial share of their holdings hidden in storage rooms...
Imperious Waving (UPDATED)
Posted on April 08, 2009George Wallace notices a distinct lack of engagement with the actual issues in Christopher Knight's response to my Art in America piece yesterday:"Christopher Knight's art writing belongs on the very short list of things that the much-abused Los Angeles Times still has left to be proud of these days...
Dark Knight
Posted on April 07, 2009LA Times art critic Christopher Knight was not impressed with my Art in America piece on deaccessioning. He responds here. The strange thing is that his ultimate conclusions -- that "when such sales inevitably happen, they need to be done with forethought and care" and "the American public trusts their tax-subsidized museum professionals to use their art collections wisely and for their benefit" -- don't seem that different from my own...
"Most art theft isn't committed by discriminating Pierce Brosnan types with a deep appreciation for Claude Monet or René Magritte"
Posted on April 06, 2009The Broward-Palm Beach New Times has a lengthy story on the art theft mentioned here: The Trail From a $6 Million French Art Heist Ends in Suburban South Florida.
Lawsuit over art-backed loans
Posted on April 06, 2009Reuters: "JPMorgan ... has sued Dutch businessman Louis Reijtenbagh [in State Supreme Court in Manhattan], saying he failed to pay back more than $23 million in loans and that he unlawfully moved valuable artwork by Rembrandt, Picasso and other artists out of the United States that had been put up as collateral...
Satellite Salander Suit
Posted on April 03, 2009Josh Baer:"Joseph Carroll Ltd is suing Craig Baker alleging that Baker?s claims to ownership/title of a 1943 John Graham painting that Carroll bought ... from the Salander O?Reilly Gallery ... have blocked his ability to sell the work. According to the papers filed, the work was on consignment to Salander from Baker who missed the deadline to file a claim in bankruptcy court...
"Tie goes to the runner"
Posted on April 03, 2009In today's New York Law Journal, former New York Times vice chairman Jim Goodale has a unique take [$] on the Shepard Fairey-AP dispute.
"Without a meaningful debate on those issues, we?re left with shrieking and moralizing that does little to bolster the public trust"
Posted on April 03, 2009The Art Market Monitor points out another problem with the "public trust" argument against deaccessioning:"If museums are a public trust for future generations, why are they allowed to duplicate missions and compete for works? As we?ve recently seen in Los Angeles, there is wasteful competition for donor funding, duplication of infrastructure and the failure of museum trustees to live up to their responsibilities all over...
UBS Shuts Down Art Advisory Business
Posted on April 02, 2009The AP reports that UBS has "closed its 'art banking' department, which helps rich clients buy and build collections. The department was created in 1998 and provided customers with research on prices and artists, and consulted them on estimates, transport, storage, restoration and inheritance of art works...
"The precedent that it would have set for public art would have been terrible -- we had to fight it"
Posted on April 02, 2009On the occasion of a gallery show of his work opening tonight, the LA Times profiles mural artist Kent Twitchell, whose six-story high "Ed Ruscha Monument" was painted over in 2006, leading to a lawsuit against the federal government (among others), which settled for $1...
Debating Deaccessioning
Posted on April 01, 2009I have a piece on deaccessioning in the new Art in America.
"Charities fight tax change"
Posted on April 01, 2009The Politico's Ben Smith reports that "the White House heard in two meetings [yesterday] from non-profit officials opposed to lowering the charity deduction for the wealthy, a move they fear would lower contributions."
I think they need better talking points
Posted on March 31, 2009Ford Bell, President of the American Association of Museums, has a letter to the editor of The New York Times, responding to the Floyd Norris piece I mentioned here.He writes in to say that Norris failed "to consider the essential point of museum collections: once an object falls under the aegis of a museum, it is held in the public trust, to be accessible to present and future generations...
"Christie's notified Weiss's representatives and his art agent that all was well"
Posted on March 30, 2009I took a look at the complaint in the Christie's withdrawn-guarantee lawsuit. Here's the timeline it presents:July 23: Christie's top execs meet with Weiss to discuss the work.July 28: Christie's memorializes its offer in writing."Late July": Weiss accepts the offer and informs Sotheby's he is "going with Christie's...
Astor Trial About to Begin
Posted on March 30, 2009This morning's New York Times previews the criminal trial of Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, and his co-defendant, Francis X. Morrissey Jr., a lawyer who was involved in her estate planning. Jury selection begins today, and the Times reminds us that an art-related charge is at the center of the case:"Both men face charges of conspiracy and scheming to defraud...
Less and less engagement
Posted on March 30, 2009Geoff Edgers rounds up the latest museum-related bad news. The University of Connecticut museums are restricting their hours, and closing entirely on the weekends. A couple of Pennsylvania museums may close down altogether.And Tyler Green reports that, due to a budget-related security staff shortage, the Hirsshhorn "has been forced to close substantial sections of the museum...
"As I held Kaindl's ad in my hands, the injustice of the outcome rankled"
Posted on March 30, 2009Regina Hackett on "how the legal system, the press and his nerve failed Dale Chihuly."
"Bernie Madoff is to Larry Salander what AIG's losses are to your personal 401(k)" (UPDATED)
Posted on March 30, 2009Ed Winkleman: Three Grumpy Thoughts on the Salander Case.UPDATE: Bruce Watson: "The greatest strength in Salander's scheme lay in its simplicity. Unlike Bernie Madoff, who had to continually find fresh money to replenish his business, Salander merely had to keep investors from discovering each other...
"Evidently, Maluk did not overexert himself in satisfying his heroin fix"
Posted on March 30, 2009A second arrest has been made in the New Haven art thefts I mentioned last week. Mark Durney has some thoughts on earlier Connecticut art thefts. Noah Charney points out that "Yale has provided a petri dish for the study of art crime over the past two months alone...
"A Tug of War Over Robert Motherwell"
Posted on March 27, 2009Robin Pogrebin reports on a pair of dueling lawsuits.
Salander Indicted (UPDATED 3X)
Posted on March 26, 2009The New York Times reports:"A noted Upper East Side art dealer has been indicted on charges he stole $88 million from investors and collectors who consigned artwork to him and said they were cheated out of the sale proceeds or never saw the pieces again ...
"Some works will be sold at Christie?s spring auctions"
Posted on March 26, 2009Carol Vogel's latest "Inside Art" column reports that the Montclair Art Museum has "decided to begin aggressively deaccessioning ... artwork, costumes, rugs and books."In other words: it's selling objects that, we are solemnly told, it holds "in trust" for the public, in this case the dear citizens of Montclair, New Jersey...
"It is often said that a high-profile art theft ... can actually be a good thing for increasing visitors"
Posted on March 26, 2009Derek Fincham on the "Munch effect."
"Top Ten Things Every Artist Should Know"
Posted on March 25, 2009Heather Bhandari and Jonathan Melber, authors of the just-released Art/Work: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career, which touches on a number of art law issues, will be doing a workshop/book-signing tonight at McNally Jackson bookstore in New York.
"The first meeting largely consisted of discussions revolving around the exact charge, or purpose, of the committee"
Posted on March 24, 2009The Committee on the Future of the Rose Art Museum had its first meeting.
"No one likes to have anything stolen, but when it?s something that?s absorbed as much time, energy & emotion as a painting, it?s especially bad news"
Posted on March 24, 2009Police in Connecticut discovered 39 paintings that had been stolen from various New Haven venues, including Yale?s Slifka Center and the public library. The paintings were recovered during a weekend drug raid; the art had apparently been traded for bags of heroin...
"Here was someone we thought was a supporter of ours, and he pulled the rug out from under us"
Posted on March 24, 2009Sadly, artists Arakawa and Gins (mentioned earlier here) were among Bernie Madoff's victims, losing their life savings. Wall Street Journal story here.
"President Obama Stands By Proposed Charitable-Deduction Limits"
Posted on March 24, 2009The Chronicle of Philanthropy has the story. And from the NYT's Live Blog of tonight's news conference:"Mike Allen of the Politico asked Mr. Obama whether he was reconsidering his plans. No, the president said. ... 'I?ll tell you what has a significant impact on charitable giving, is a financial crisis and an economy that?s contracting,' he said...
More on Media Coverage of Art Crime
Posted on March 23, 2009From Mark Durney. Earlier installment here.
Bonus Post
Posted on March 23, 2009The Wall Street Journal: "American International Group Inc. (AIG) and Starr International Co. have resolved a long-running dispute over an art collection valued at one point at more than $15 million, in order to focus on a broader fight over control of Starr's ownership stake in the insurer...
Christie's Sued
Posted on March 22, 2009For $40 million. The New York Times:"Christie's is being sued by a family trust led by the Connecticut collector George A. Weiss, who says the auction house reneged on a $40 million guarantee when it tried but failed to sell a 1964 painting by Francis Bacon in November...
"What do people opposed to the sale of paintings think suddenly poor institutions should do?"
Posted on March 20, 2009I've mentioned a couple of times how the attitudes towards deaccessioning among those within the art world are so different from those outside the art world. Those inside the art world tend to look at deaccessioning as a Crime Against Humanity (though of course, if the proceeds are used to buy more art, deaccessioning "is not a dirty word")...
"We want to get to trial and UA doesn't"
Posted on March 20, 2009The University of Alabama's lawsuit against sports artist Daniel Moore is still rolling on. Moore has a statement about the case here.
Singer on Art Philanthropy
Posted on March 20, 2009From Dwight Garner's recent New York Times review of philosopher Peter Singer's new book on world poverty, "The Life You Can Save":"Some of Mr. Singer?s contentions are harder to stomach. 'Philanthropy for the arts or for cultural activities is, in a world like this one, morally dubious,' he declares...
"Overall, we would much prefer the New York legislature keeping its nose out of private sector business"
Posted on March 18, 2009Jack Siegel, author of the Desktop Guide for Nonprofit Directors, Officers, and Advisors, is not impressed with the NY anti-deaccessioning bill. He says "we can understand why the New York Legislature would stick its nose into museum business if it is funding grants to those museums, but we don?t like this legislation to the extent it applies to private, self-supporting museums...
"Stranger still, the project has never been given a formal unveiling, the idea never credited to any person, and the work never titled"
Posted on March 18, 2009The San Antonio Current has a story on a very odd copyright lawsuit that's an excellent example of how difficult it can sometimes be to separate idea from expression.
Arbus Suit Settled
Posted on March 18, 2009The lawsuit over the sale of a group of previously unknown Diane Arbus photographs has settled. The Maine Antique Digest has the story. The parties will apparently share any sales proceeds, though in what proportions was not disclosed.
Brodsky Beat
Posted on March 17, 2009Lee Rosenbaum has the scoop on the forthcoming NY State anti-deaccessioning legislation (mentioned earlier here). She's hearing "the bill will most likely be introduced tomorrow."The New York State Board of Regents already has rules in place to regulate deaccessioning...
"I thought we'd get a new church out of the sale. All we got was the sign."
Posted on March 17, 2009The Maine Antique Digest has more on the lawsuit by a group of nuns who claim they were swindled by an art dealer in the sale of a long-lost Bouguereau. The Art Market Monitor says "after reading it you?ll know so much more about the affair . . . and so much less about the truth of what happened...
"There is no word yet on when or if Gagosian will get his gold"
Posted on March 16, 2009This week's New Yorker has a Talk of the Town piece on Chris Burden's seized gold (mentioned earlier here and here).
"Arguing against a straw man to further the strict constructionist view of deaccessioning ..." (UPDATED)
Posted on March 16, 2009That's The Art Market Monitor's take on Christopher Knight's LA Times piece over the weekend, which discussed an example of "smart" deaccessioning: "this example ... does nothing to address the real issue of recent months?and likely to re-emerge in years to come?how should institutions in extremis deal with the pressing issue of art as an asset...
Trust is fleeting
Posted on March 16, 2009The Indianapolis Museum of Art has put up a searchable database of all the works it held "in trust" for the public . . . until it decided to sell them. (It's actually just a very partial list of such works -- from 2007 forward.)I'm reminded again of a comment from MCASD's Hugh Davies: "We museum directors can huff and puff about how once we bring these artworks into our collections ...
Gorman Suit
Posted on March 16, 2009From the AP : "The estate of the late Navajo artist R.C. Gorman has filed a lawsuit against two Albuquerque art galleries. The suit filed in U.S. District Court charges the galleries are violating trademark and copyright laws by selling [unauthorized] reproduced images and featuring Gorman's signature and silhouette, which are trademarked...
Posner on Tax Deductions for Foreign Charitable Donations
Posted on March 15, 2009A while back, I took note of a blogospheric debate on the question of the deductibility of donations to benefit foreign charities (including foreign museums). Judge Posner discusses the issue at his blog this week. He's against deductibility, for primarily two reasons: (a) "[a]lthough charitable donations to foreign recipients will ...
It's not?
Posted on March 14, 2009LA Times art critic Christopher Knight: "Deaccessioning is not a dirty word."He says "museum deaccessioning is not all that uncommon, ... and when done with care, it can benefit everyone."
Gardnering
Posted on March 14, 2009There's a story on the front page of tomorrow's New York Times Arts & Leisure section on Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Two art law issues figure prominently.The first is the recent ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (mentioned earlier here) that "the museum can depart from the strict parameters of Gardner?s prickly will" and go ahead with a proposed expansion...
Deaccessioning on TV
Posted on March 13, 2009Lee Rosenbaum notes that on this week's Sunday Morning on CBS there's going to be a report on the National Academy and Rose Art Museum controversies. The segment is apparently entitled "The Art of Survival: Deaccessioning Artworks."Speaking of which, I meant to highlight this quote from the Adrian Ellis piece in The Art Newspaper that I linked to yesterday:"The straightforward fiat that is the current international norm?no deaccessioning unless you spend proceeds on more art?will either be finessed or ignored under the pressure of financial realities...
More Lawsuits
Posted on March 13, 2009Three mentioned in this week's Baer Faxt:"Lawsuit # 1: and why we don?t recommend doing authentications. Giulio Urbinati sued Maurice Tuchman for tortious interference alleging his telling a gallery and auction house that 10 Soutine drawings worth $150,000 were not authentic or fake...
Boone Suit
Posted on March 13, 2009From Artnet News: "In a lawsuit filed in New York state supreme court on Feb. 9, 2009, [Mary Boone Gallery] seeks to compel Ohio collector Mary Kidder, a trustee of the Columbus Museum of Art, to complete a purchase of a painting by Will Cotton for $32,000...
Yale-Peru News
Posted on March 13, 2009The Hartford Courant reports that Yale has moved to dismiss Peru's Machu Picchu suit for improper venue. The case was filed in D.C., but Yale says the proper venue is Connecticut.
"The city may not skirt First Amendment protections by applying a definition of commercial speech that better suits its tastes"
Posted on March 13, 2009The magistrate has recommended a preliminary injunction in favor of the bait shop owner (and against the city) in the Florida fish mural case. Story here.
"Clearly this is a step in the process of re-engaging the academy as a member in good standing"
Posted on March 13, 2009The New York Times's Robin Pogrebin has more on the AAMD-National Academy rapprochement. She also breaks this news:"New York Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester County Democrat and Brandeis alumnus, has introduced legislation with the State Board of Regents to set deaccessioning guidelines for New York museums...
Today in Fairey Law
Posted on March 12, 2009Shepard Fairey is an art law course unto himself. On the one hand, there's his copyright lawsuit against the AP, which raises all sorts of interesting and difficult questions. (Lawprof Bruce Boyden is in the midst on what's now a nine-part series of posts about the case...
"We are entering a period when all but the most privileged and well-connected of art museums are going to come under very real financial constraints"
Posted on March 12, 2009In The Art Newspaper, Adrian Ellis (of the Ellis Rule) has some thoughts on museums in a time of recession.
AP Responds to Fairey
Posted on March 11, 2009The AP filed its response to Shepard Fairey's complaint today. You can read it here. It sometimes has a bit of a kitchen-sink feel to it, but, on the whole, it's very well done. Some highlights (with paragraph numbers in parentheses):They say Fairey's work "cop[ies] all the distinctive and unequivocally recognizable elements of the [AP] Obama Photo in their entire detail, retaining the heart and essence of" the photo (54)...
"In the end, as far as [VARA] is concerned, it does not make any difference who owns the property"
Posted on March 11, 2009The Reno Gazette Journal reports:"Two San Francisco artists are suing a Gerlach farm-owner claiming he torched La Contessa, a replica of a 16th century Spanish galleon that often appeared at the annual Burning Man festival. Simon Cheffins, an artist, and Greg Jones, a mechanical engineer who helped build it, said in their suit that Mike Stewart, owner of Orient Farms, considered their creation 'junk' and destroyed it on Dec...
"It probably would have been worth ten grand if you or I got our hands on that brick"
Posted on March 11, 2009From the New York Post: "A top Japanese pop artist in town for a big gallery opening was busted the night before his show when cops spotted him drawing a smiley face on the wall of an East Side subway station."New York magazine's Lane Brown says "Poster Boy probably doesn't need to worry about this guy...
"This case is more addictive than crack"
Posted on March 11, 2009The Christian Science Monitor's Marjorie Kehe reviews Ulrich Boser's The Gardner Heist: "One of the more intriguing things about the book is its exploration of what really happens to purloined masterpieces. Rather than landing in the private collections of crazed billionaires, most become currency for criminals, entering a twilight netherworld of terrorism, weapons and currency exchanges, and shadowy, major-league crime bosses...
Compromising
Posted on March 11, 2009"Three months after the Association of Art Museum Directors imposed severe sanctions on the National Academy Museum for selling two important Hudson River School paintings to pay bills, the two institutions issued a joint statement on Wednesday signaling that a compromise was taking shape...
More on Charitable Deductions
Posted on March 10, 2009From page 1 of this morning's New York Times:"What the Democratic barons of Congress liked best about President Obama?s audacious budget was his invitation to fill in the details. They have started by erasing some of his. The apparent first casualty is a big one: a proposal to limit tax deductions for the wealthiest 1...
"Anything with 'Obey' on it they can't have"
Posted on March 10, 2009Those who would charge artist Shepard Fairey with hypocrisy (e.g.) have a little more ammunition.
Rose-colored glasses (UPDATED)
Posted on March 10, 2009Christopher Knight acknowledges that the "modest level" of attendance at the Rose Art Museum ? reportedly about 13,000 to 15,000 annual visitors ? "might suggest to some that losing the Rose and its art collection wouldn't be so dire." But, he argues, that "would be a mistaken impression...
"I would never have been able to allow the institution to close in order to take the position of not selling the paintings"
Posted on March 09, 2009Judd Tully has a piece in the March Art+Auction on the "daunting array of problems, from budget gaps and staff cuts to shrinking corporate and individual patronage and flagging capital campaigns," museums are currently facing.Naturally, the question of deaccessioning comes up, but a number of AAMD members are on hand to defend their prissy fatwa...
Noortman Recovery
Posted on March 09, 2009From this morning's New York Times:"Dutch police have recovered eight paintings, including works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro, that were stolen from the Noortman gallery in Maastricht in 1987 .... Three suspects ... were arrested ......
No Retrial
Posted on March 09, 2009UK prosecutors have announced that they will not seek to retry 77-year old artist Maurice Agis on manslaughter charges stemming from a 2006 incident involving his Dreamscape sculpture. "He was found guilty last month of breaching safety rules but the jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on the manslaughter charge...
Fairey in Court
Posted on March 09, 2009But not on the AP fair use case: "Shepard Fairey faces various vandalizing property charges, and is scheduled to appear in Brighton District Court on Tuesday and Roxbury District Court on Wednesday."
Gardner Plans Approved
Posted on March 07, 2009The Boston Globe's Geoff Edgers reported yesterday that "the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that the expansion plans of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum do not violate restrictions created by the museum's founder in her will. The decision gives the museum permission to remove a carriage house on its Fenway site; create a new entrance, a new building for offices, a gift shop, a cafe, and visitor center; and build a glass walkway between the buildings...
"I feel strongly about it. Artists need to be rewarded for their hard work"
Posted on March 05, 2009"Love it or loathe it, though, 'Blue Mustang' is doing what art is supposed to do ? get attention"
Posted on March 02, 2009"Nonprofit groups are up in arms over President Obama?s proposal to limit charitable deductions"
Posted on February 27, 2009"A captivating portrait of the world's biggest unsolved art theft"
Posted on February 26, 2009The Wall Street Journal reviews Ulrich Boser's new book on the Gardner heist.
Fish Mural Suit
Posted on February 26, 2009The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the city of Clearwater, Florida on behalf of a tackle shop owner who was fined for having a mural of game fish painted on his shop. The suit claims that the mural is a work of art and therefore exempt from the city's commercial sign regulations...
More Museum Cuts
Posted on February 26, 2009I mentioned the Detroit Insitute of Arts and the Las Vegas Museum of Art earlier this week.Now, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has announced that it too is "cutting staff, delaying exhibitions, curtailing programs, trimming salaries and ? subject to city approval ? increasing admission fees...
Agis Update
Posted on February 26, 2009Artist Maurice Agis was found guilty of breaching health and safety rules, but the jury was unable to come to a verdict on manslaughter charges arising out of a public art tragedy in the summer of 2006. UK prosecutors said they would make a decision on whether to retry him within seven days.
I think I have a new favorite museum director
Posted on February 25, 2009Hugh Davies, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego:"We museum directors can huff and puff about how once we bring these artworks into our collections that they no longer have value because they've been removed from the market, that they become this special trust that is the patrimony of our cities and that they're held in trust for future generations...
Yeah, that'll work well with a jury
Posted on February 24, 2009The lawyer for an art dealer being sued by a congregation of nuns in upstate New York "blasted [the] allegations against his client as 'a pack of lies.'"
Randolph College Update
Posted on February 24, 2009In another case on the deaccession docket, the Lynchburg News & Advance's Christa Desrets reports that "Lynchburg Circuit Court Judge Leyburn Mosby Jr. ruled that a trial will determine who should get the $500,000 bond that secured the barring of the sale of the art in late 2007...
"We have acted upon the information, but we have been unable to corroborate it"
Posted on February 24, 2009The Boston Globe reports on a jailhouse tip in the infamous Gardner theft. So far it hasn't panned out. Geoff Edgers isn't holding his breath.
20%
Posted on February 24, 2009The Detroit Institute of Arts is laying off about 20% of its staff. They've also cut back on some programs, canceled a few traveling exhibitions, and, in December, cut museum hours by four per week. Their operating costs are about $15 million a year.
"Now people are looking to every asset they have to unlock cash"
Posted on February 24, 2009The New York Times had a front page story today on art-backed lending: "At a time when stock portfolios are plunging and many homes ... have no equity left to borrow against, an increasing number of art owners are realizing that an Old Master or a prime photograph, when used as collateral, can bring in much-needed cash...
Craps
Posted on February 23, 2009The Las Vegas Art Museum is closing. Brief story in the NYT here. More from the Las Vegas Sun here.
Response to Rosenthal
Posted on February 23, 2009ARTnews's Robin Cembalest responds to Norman Rosenthal's call for an end to any further Nazi restitution claims:"[T]he fact remains that restitution research is very much a work in process. As ARTnews has chronicled repeatedly over the last two decades, initial efforts to research the history of supposedly 'heirless' art ...
A Rose is a Rose . . . isn't it?
Posted on February 20, 2009In the New York Times this morning, Holland Cotter has some advice for "university administrators toying with thoughts of closing their campus museums and peddling the art, as Brandeis recently threatened to do":"Just stop. Period. Bad way to go. If it helps, consider your museum and its collection in purely materialistic terms, as a big chunk of capital, slowly and fortuitously accumulated...
"One of history's greatest unsolved mysteries"
Posted on February 20, 2009Kriston Capps reviews "journalist-turned-gumshoe" Ulrich Boser's new book The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft: "The mystery remains unsolved, but the case is reinvigorated in its retelling by a man who fully appreciates the value of the masterpieces and the magnitude of the criminal conspiracy that carried them away in the night...
Sales Tax Changes
Posted on February 19, 2009Jo Laird emails a reminder that changes to the New York State sales tax law went into effect January 1 which will require the tax to be paid on certain sales by museums and other tax exempt organizations:"The provision on sales at auction houses will eliminate an advantage that exempt organizations have had in selling art...
"CAA will rep both the artist and his company, which has earned more than $4 billion over the past 15 years"
Posted on February 19, 2009Variety reports that Painter of Light Thomas Kinkade has signed with Creative Artists Agency "in an effort to seek out TV, film and Internet projects."
Nunsense
Posted on February 19, 2009From today's New York Post:"The Daughters of Mary Mother of Our Savior say appraiser Mark Lasalle intentionally defrauded them by convincing them a painting they had was worth $450,000, and then promptly reselling it ... for $2 million."
"Transformative should cut both ways"
Posted on February 18, 2009Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento takes up the question I posed yesterday:"I would add that it wouldn't necessarily have to be a 'crass commercial artist,' but could simply be a corporation searching for advertising material, such as Apple did with Marclay's video...
GWOAL
Posted on February 17, 2009Derek Fincham draws some parallels between the "war on drugs" and antiquities-looting policies:"One of the weaknesses with prohibitionism is it restricts supply, without taking account of the potential demand. This makes the targeted trade ... more profitable, allowing better, more sophisticated tactics to evade law enforcement...
"I think unless you?re modifying it and making it your own, you?re on very tenuous ground"
Posted on February 17, 2009Jim Johnson, who, when he first heard about Shepard Fairey's copyright dispute with the AP, said "it seems to me that AP ... has a loser on its hands legally," is having some second thoughts:"I am given some pause though, by this remark from a recent interview with graphics guru Milton Glaser: 'For myself?this is subjective?I find the relationship between Fairey's work and his sources discomforting...
Schjeldahl on Fairey
Posted on February 16, 2009Peter Schjeldahl's review of the Shepard Fairey retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston includes the following on his legal battle with the AP:"Fairey has run into a ... predictable legal snarl with the 'Hope' poster, having lifted the image from an Associated Press photograph...
"I hope the maximum amount of the $50 million finds its way into the pockets of artists and those who support them"
Posted on February 15, 2009The NYT's Robin Pogrebin tells the tale of how money for the arts ended up making it into the stimulus bill approved by Congress last week.
"My gut tells me everybody is right!"
Posted on February 13, 2009The Fairey debate comes to The Colbert Report. Watch it here.
Today's Fairey
Posted on February 12, 2009Add Temple's David Post to the list of those who think the AP's claim against Shepard Fairey is "very weak." He cites two grounds: (1) "It's not an infringement .... [W]hat Obama looks like, and the tilt of his head, are not protected original elements of the photo ...
The Baer Law Journal
Posted on February 12, 2009Josh Baer says he "feel[s] like the NY Law Journal reporting all these suits," but this week alone includes the following:"Earl Davis, the son of the painter Stuart Davis, has sued Joseph Carroll for $3 million alleging the 8 Davis paintings Carroll bought from Salander O'Reilly were knowingly bought ...
"I understand Fairey to have accessed the original event through the Garcia photo rather than to have physically remixed the photo itself"
Posted on February 12, 2009In an update to the post mentioned here, David Post points to a post by the University of Chicago's Randy Picker that says the real question in the Fairey case is "what was copied from the Garcia work, as opposed to taken from the original event as accessed through the Garcia work...
Anti-trust
Posted on February 10, 2009Artnet's Paul Jeromack mentions two "recent museum deaccessions" included in Christie's latest Old Master sale -- one sold by the Met at Sotheby?s in 2006 for $632,000 (the buyer just resold it for $722,500), and the other, "a masterpiece of Anglo-American neoclassicism and very much unlike most pictures by West in American collections," sold by the Corcoran for a "bargain" price of $458,500...
More Difficult Questions
Posted on February 10, 2009Last night is was "Who Owns Art?" This morning, the Boston Globe asks: "What is crime and what is art?"
Fairey Files
Posted on February 09, 2009Shepard Fairey has filed for a declaratory judgment that his Obama image does not infringe The AP's copyrights in the photo on which it is based.
Hold Your Horses
Posted on February 09, 2009Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento points to a story about a public art controversy in Denver. I thought this was interesting to hear:"City rules require any public-art installation to remain in place for at least five years, to honor the artist's intent and give the work a chance to grow on the public...
Who Owns Art?
Posted on February 09, 2009I make an appearance in this piece by Nicole Savery (page 11) on some ongoing ownership debates.
"What makes people ? even cops ? think photography is a crime?"
Posted on February 08, 2009Ann Althouse notes a story about a guy who was arrested after he "snapped a photo of a woman's bottom as she sunned herself in Central Park." He sued, and the city paid $8,000 to settle.
To the Editor
Posted on February 07, 2009The New York Times runs a bunch of letters to the editor today on the Rose story. A sampling:"My wife, my two sons, several of my closest friends and I graduated from Brandeis University. We are upset that Brandeis may sell some or all of its wonderful art collection...
Legal trouble of a different kind . . .
Posted on February 07, 2009. . . for artist Shepard Fairey, currently embroiled in a copyright dispute over his famous Obama image:"[Fairey] was arrested Friday night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff event for his first solo exhibition .... Two warrants were issued for Fairey on Jan...
"Beginning Feb. 17, the museum no longer will be open on Tuesdays. It already is closed on Mondays"
Posted on February 07, 2009The Akron Beacon Journal reports that the Akron Art Museum, "facing a roughly 25 percent decline in its endowment, will close on Tuesdays, lay off employees and cut some other workers' hours." The number of exhibitions at the museum next year will also drop to eight or nine, down from 15 this year.
That makes three
Posted on February 06, 2009According to Charlottesville's The Hook, Christie's filed a lawsuit against collector Halsey Minor "on Monday in Northern California federal court ... for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of contract over $7 million he bid for three paintings he purchased at an auction in July...
It's On
Posted on February 05, 2009The AP is coming after artist Shepard Fairey over his iconic Obama image:"'The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission,' the AP's director of media relations, Paul Colford, said in a statement...
What's going on with the Rose?
Posted on February 05, 2009Earlier today, Geoff Edgers posted a letter from Brandeis president Jehuda Reinharz, apologizing for "screw[ing] up," and explaining that his initial statements "gave the misleading impression that we were selling the entire collection immediately, which is not true...
Iowa Denial
Posted on February 05, 2009Iowa legislators are denying reports (mentioned yesterday here) that they having been discussing requiring the University of Iowa to sell its Pollock.
Mars and Venus
Posted on February 05, 2009I mentioned a piece yesterday by Judith Dobrzynski, which talked about the differing reactions to the Rose story by those inside the art world, on the one hand, and the rest of the world, on the other. Here's an example from the rest of the world: San Diego law professor Gail Heriot...
"That's the trouble with fair use"
Posted on February 05, 2009I started collecting reactions to the AP's claim of copyright infringement re Shepard Fairey's Obama image. A few more:Brooklyn Law's Jason Mazzone asks, "Is the use fair? Hard to say. That's the trouble with fair use." He goes on to say that "a more interesting problem" is whether the AP photograph meets "the threshold requirement of originality...
One Eighty
Posted on February 05, 2009Felix Salmon offers some answers to the questions I raised in the update to this post yesterday. Libby Ellis emailed some thoughts in response:"I don't understand Felix's 180 on Iowa. How could he support selling Pollock's Mural precisely because it's one of the greatest American paintings of the 20th century and ought to be in a more prominent museum collection that can presumably promote and protect it better (his argument in August), and then suddenly say that the same piece should never be sold - not even to another museum - because it's 'core' to the collection? That is quite an about-face...
On Deck (UPDATED)
Posted on February 04, 2009Looks like a sale of the University of Iowa Museum of Art's Jackson Pollock is once again being discussed. Richard Lacayo and Tyler Green have the latest.As Lacayo reminds us, there was a "brief uproar" around the painting last August. My posts on that uproar include this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, this one, and, finally, this one...
"Can you blame the public for believing that art is an investment, to be cashed in when expedient?"
Posted on February 04, 2009At Forbes.com, Judith Dobrzynski tries to explain the widely divergent reactions of the art world and the general public to the Rose story.She lists a bunch of reasons why the public has come to see art "as a tradeable commodity."One good reason that doesn't make the list is that (whatever else it may be) art is a tradeable commodity...
Poster Boy
Posted on February 04, 2009In this morning's New York Times, Randy Kennedy has an interesting story on the arrest of "Poster Boy" -- the street artist who has "made his outlaw presence known all over the city by cutting and pasting the images that are already [in the subway system] in the form of ads...
"... has sent a chill down the collective spines of the major auction houses"
Posted on February 03, 2009Judd Tully has a piece in the February Art+Auction on the Christie's decision I wrote about back in November here.I'm quoted in the piece as follows:"The logic of this decision, says Donn Zaretsky of the New York law firm John Silberman Associates, means that 'any subsequent buyer ? no matter how remote in time and no matter how many intervening transactions have occurred ? could potentially bring a fraud claim against an auction house as market maker...
Brief Rose
Posted on February 03, 2009I didn't get a chance today to mention this excellent piece by Daniel Grant on the Rose closing. As he was with Grant's story on the Prince-Cariou lawsuit last week, Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento is impressed. The piece covers a lot of ground, but for now I'll just highlight this passage:"A larger question may be whether selling the contents of a museum to benefit the parent institution is good economics...
Weekend Rose
Posted on February 02, 2009Quick end-of-the-weekend Rose roundup.Roberta Smith says the move is "an act of breathtaking stealth and presumption":"In a just and moral society, art is crucial to our understanding of freedom, difference and individual agency. The message out of Brandeis University last week ? to its own students and to the world ? was that when the going gets tough, none of this matters...
Midday Rose
Posted on February 02, 2009The Art Market Monitor has some thoughts in response to Roberta Smith's paean to the indispensability of art, which I mentioned last night:"It?s hard to argue with this position. The destruction of the Rose Museum is a terrible act. What seems to amplify the problem is the very success of art in recent years in market terms...
Diddy Suit
Posted on February 02, 2009The Boston Globe's Jonathan Saltzman reports that glass artist Tom Patti has sued "hip-hop and fashion mogul" Sean "Diddy" Combs in US District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, claiming that the packaging for Combs's "Unforgivable" cologne infringes the copyrights on two "tabletop glass sculptures [Patti] created in the early 1980s called 'Compacted Gray With Clear and Ribs' and 'Modulated Solar Airframe...
Out of Time
Posted on February 02, 2009Interesting art-related decision [$] out of the Eastern District of New York recently (Sands v. Bernstein, 07 Civ. 9824). Plaintiffs had a painting rejected by the Warhol authentication board in 1997. That same year, they entered into a letter agreement with the defendant under which, if he was able to get the decision reversed, they would sell the work to him for $65,000...
Outliers
Posted on February 02, 2009The New York Observer carries a review of philosopher Denis Dutton's new book The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution which includes the following:"An entertaining chapter on famous frauds tells the story of Eric Hebborn, who forged 'new' works by old masters suffused with such deep understanding of the artists he copied that connoisseurs still find his work ravishing (and maybe you do, too?his fakes are thought to be on display in museums all over the world)...
Postmortem Publicity Rights
Posted on February 02, 2009I've mentioned the debate between SMU law professor Joshua Tate and the team of Mitchell Gans, Bridget Crawford, and Jonathan Blattmachr regarding the taxation and disposition of postmortem publicity rights. Tate now has a new article on the subject available for download here.
Rose Break (UPDATED)
Posted on February 02, 2009Let's take a look at some other art law stories besides the closing of the Rose. Start with a settlement of the closely-watched lawsuit mentioned in the "update" here. The New York Times's Randy Kennedy reports:"Two museums announced Monday that they had reached a settlement with heirs of the original owner of two Picasoo paintings ...
Numbers
Posted on January 30, 2009Financial journalist Felix Salmon points to this "astonishing" article by Judith Dobrzynski at the Daily Beast on Brandeis's overall financial situation.He's not buying it:"[H]ere are the numbers: the Brandeis endowment was $712 million in June, and is $530 million now...
"Had it not been for the deaccessioning rules . . . the Rose Art Museum might well have lived"
Posted on January 30, 2009Felix Salmon gets it straight from the horse's mouth (the horse in this case being Brandeis director of communications in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, David Nathan) that, as he puts in the title to his latest post on the subject, the "deaccessioning rules doomed the Rose Art Museum":"Brandeis has been saying that it's not going to be selling off all of the Rose Art Museum's art at once -- or even, necessarily, any of it at all...
"Did the Deaccessioning Police Doom the Rose?"
Posted on January 29, 2009The Art Market Monitor says the answer seems to be yes.
Think about it
Posted on January 29, 2009I want to say a little more about why, contra my friend Sergio, I think it's unhelpful to speak of the Brandeis decision as a "deaccessioning."It seems to me that the word is simply a conversation-stopper. Its function is to prevent debate, prevent discussion...
Grey Area
Posted on January 29, 2009Daniel Grant has a piece in the Wall Street Journal on the Richard Prince lawsuit. He points out that "the overall trend of court decisions between 1989 and 2005 (and the present) is to allow greater latitude for the claim of the new artwork being transformative...
"You can't do this piecemeal"
Posted on January 28, 2009In a post yesterday, I said: "I wonder if the taboo against selling individual pieces might not have contributed, in some small way, to Brandeis's decision to close the museum? If they could have sold five or ten of the most valuable works without controversy, might the trustees have reached a different conclusion?" This morning Richard Lacayo posts an interview with Michael Rush, the Rose's director, which includes the following: "You can't solve a shortfall problem by selling, say, our Lichtenstein and still maintain yourself legally and ethically as a museum...
"All or nothing, that seems to be the ethical landscape"
Posted on January 28, 2009Derek Fincham had the same reaction I had to the Rose news: "the deaccessioning hurdles may perversely make it more feasible for an institution in financial or other difficulty to completely shut down, rather than sell parts of a collection."As if on cue, Tyler Green then shows up to inform us that "selling some of the Rose Art Museum's art collection is not an improvement...
The more I hear about the Rose story . . .
Posted on January 28, 2009. . . the more it seems to me that the whole thing is just a way to get around the prissy fatwa against deaccessioning. Geoff Edgers has a preview up of his story in tomorrow's Boston Globe, which includes the following:"Brandeis provost Marty Krauss also shed new light on the reasoning behind the closure, which is scheduled for late summer...
In other news
Posted on January 28, 2009Some non-Rose art law stories worth briefly mentioning:Artist Maurice Agis's manslaughter trial is under way in England.Park West Gallery, accused of ripping off collectors, has decided the best defense is a good offense.The Financial Times on how art-backed lending is faring these days.
Morning Rose
Posted on January 27, 2009Geoff Edgers has a fuller story on last night's Brandeis bombshell in this morning's Boston Globe, including the following:"A Brandeis spokesman said that the Massachusetts attorney general's office ... has been informed of the move and will not block it...
Evening Rose
Posted on January 27, 2009Lots to take in on the Rose story.First, an important correction from Geoff Edgers: it turns out the Massachusetts attorney general's office has not signed off on the move.More from Randy Kennedy and Carol Vogel in the New York Times:"Emily LaGrassa, director of communications for the state attorney general ...
WOW: Rose Art Museum Shutting Down
Posted on January 26, 2009The Boston Globe's Geoff Edgers and Peter Schworm are reporting tonight that "Brandeis University will close its Rose Art Museum and sell off a 6,000-object collection that includes work by such contemporary masters as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Nam June Paik...
"Reminding us again, that when you're on vacation, take extra care when purchasing art"
Posted on January 24, 2009Derek Fincham has the latest lesson, this time involving the work of Salvador Dali.See here for a previous example.
"One count of institutional vandalsim"
Posted on January 23, 2009The Carnegie Museum of Art security guard who slashed a Vija Celmins painting with a key last spring has plead guilty and will be sentenced on April 7. The guard "has been seeking mental health treatment since his arrest."
"Prince himself ... unapologetically problematises issues of authorship"
Posted on January 21, 2009The Art Newspaper has more on the Richard Prince lawsuit, mentioned earlier here.People keep mentioning Blanch v. Koons, but it's worth noting that Koons's use of the underlying image in that case seems quite different from the "purer" kind of appropriation that Prince is up to here (although admittedly I've only seen a couple of the relevant works)...
Fairey Use?
Posted on January 21, 2009The hunt is on for the photographic source of Shepard Fairey's iconic Obama image, and, as Mike Madison says, now "the fair use fun can begin." Madison gets it started; he thinks the photographer may well have a good claim: "Sure, the photo is 'transformed' to a sizable extent, which pushes the fair use needle to Fairey?s side...
"This is hardly the time to subsidize a new 'tourist magnet' museum"
Posted on January 19, 2009Philadelphia Inquirer art critic Edward Sozanski: "As the city government wrestles with a staggering projected budget deficit, the folly of moving the Barnes Foundation from Merion to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway becomes even more egregious."
Puccio Suit
Posted on January 15, 2009Josh Baer: "Puccio Gallery in NYC has been sued for $500,000 by Deborah Benjamin alleging they sold her fake works by Picasso and Milton Avery."
Enter Sandman
Posted on January 14, 2009Over at his Deaccessioning Blog, Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento sizes up the state of the debate, and offers a few thoughts of his own, focusing primarily on the case of emergency deaccessionings by failing institutions (which he likens to a "band-aid on a bullet-hole")...
"Gen. Nistri said there was evidence the smuggler intended to try to sell the works outside Italy"
Posted on January 14, 2009CBC News:"Italian police have recovered 10 masterpieces stolen in 2004 .... The paintings had been stolen from the halls of Santo Spirito in Sassia, a religious complex near the Vatican. They were discovered in good condition, wrapped in newspaper in the trailer of a suspected art smuggler ...
"I'll hazard a guess that Obama is unlikely to pursue action against the thong makers"
Posted on January 14, 2009The Guardian looks at the right of publicity as it applies to politicians.
"The current rule seems both incomplete and overly restrictive. Surely there?s an opportunity here for reasoned reform"
Posted on January 13, 2009Jen Graves has an interesting podcast interview with Jori Finkel, who wrote the New York Times article on deaccessioning discussed here.
"It was bound to happen eventually"
Posted on January 13, 2009Daryl Lang of Photo District News has more on the Richard Prince lawsuit, mentioned earlier here.Lang says the case "is similar to a 2003 lawsuit by photographer Andrea Blanch against artist Jeff Koons" for his use of "a photograph of a woman?s legs as part of a painted collage...
The Museum of Underappreciated Art
Posted on January 12, 2009A deaccessioning thought experiment from Felix Salmon.
Another Park West Lawsuit
Posted on January 12, 2009This one in Michigan state court. Detroit News story here.Previous post on Park West here.
Salander Update
Posted on January 12, 2009Bloomberg's Philip Boroff and Lindsay Pollock have an update on the Salander-O?Reilly story, including news that a New York state grand jury is considering criminal charges against Salander.
A Minor Dismissal
Posted on January 09, 2009I mentioned earlier that Sotheby's and Halsey Minor were fighting over whether he could bring a separate action against the auction house in California, in addition to the one they brought against him here in New York. Sotheby's has now won that battle...
Trust Yourself
Posted on January 09, 2009Newcurator.com points to a piece by the director of the Addison Gallery arguing against the National Academy deaccessioning. It's of the "held-in-trust" genre ("When trustees and curators make the decision to accept a work of art in a museum?s collection, they agree to hold it in trust for the education and enjoyment of the general public...
This and that
Posted on January 09, 2009Lots of art law in the latest Baer Faxt:A $450,000 suit against furniture dealer Craig van den Brulles of Capital Furnishings in Nolita alleging the Henry Moore plaintiff purchased was not authentic. Says Josh: "Note: maybe don't buy art from decorators?""Sources report that dealers and collectors have been trekking down to the NY Grand Jury to testify against Larry Salander recently...
No Cigar
Posted on January 08, 2009The close call on the orphan works bill made the Library Journal's Top Ten Stories of 2008. Here's their assessment for 2009:"With economic and international crises sure to command Congress? attention in 2009, it?s questionable whether orphan works will rise again anytime soon...
"The free-for-all nature of the world of expensive art seems designed to confuse the difference between cheating and simply trying to make a living"
Posted on January 08, 2009The Art Market Monitor points to this "priceless" story detailing San Francisco dealer Nancy Wandlass's many legal problems.Related story, from a couple of years ago: "Calif. couple left trail of lies, disappointments in art world."
"If you think that number sounded good 18 months ago, think about it now in this economy"
Posted on January 08, 2009Appellate arguments were heard in the Fisk-O'Keeffe case today. Colby Sledge has the story in The Tennessean. Lee Rosenbaum comments here.
Prince Suit
Posted on January 08, 2009Cityfile reports that photographer Patrick Cariou has filed a lawsuit against artist Richard Prince, Larry Gagosian, Gagosian Gallery, and Rizzoli books "for using a number of his photographs in Prince's 'Canal Zone' exhibition without his consent, pics that Cariou alleges first appeared in his 2000 book, Yes Rasta...
Have I mentioned how insightful the Art Market Monitor is?
Posted on January 07, 2009For example.I'm blushing.
Pop Quiz (UPDATED)
Posted on January 07, 2009If I told you someone held the following views:"The art can be the art anywhere. It can be seen anywhere.""[S]omewhere such as the High or Seattle would be delighted to beef up their American paintings collections, and if/when they do so ..., they'd likely beef up their curatorial focus on such work...
"Admirers sent him food, wine, and money while he was in jail awaiting trial"
Posted on January 06, 2009Laurie Hurwitz has a story in the current ARTnews on a forthcoming documentary about "the infamous theft of August 21, 1911, when an Italian mason named Vincenzo Peruggia walked out of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa."Here is Peruggia'a Wikipedia enty. Here is a fairly recent piece from Time magazine, which put the theft on their list of the Top 25 crimes of the twentieth century.
A Post That Has Nothing To Do With Deaccessioning
Posted on January 06, 2009As promised.Here's a roundup of some of the things we missed over the holiday break:The LA Times's Diane Haithman spoke with MOCA's new chief executive, Charles Young, and reported that one of the things he will do is "oversee the museum?s cooperation with the California attorney general?s office, which is looking into the museum's finances following news reports that MOCA had used restricted funds to cover general operating expenses...
Fisk Arguments This Week
Posted on January 06, 2009The Tennessee Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments this week in the Fisk University-O'Keeffe Museum case. The AP has a summary:"Fisk is appealing the Nashville Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle's decision in March that the school broke the terms of O'Keeffe's donation by not keeping the collection on display and by trying to sell parts of it...
Orphan Works Update
Posted on January 06, 2009Information Today's "Review of the Year 2008" includes the following:"Last fall, a bill strongly supported by libraries, The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Bill of 2008, was passed in the Senate. But the House version had significant differences, and the matter remained unresolved...
Against Prissy Fatwas
Posted on January 06, 2009Felix Salmon weighs in on the ongoing deaccession debate. He endorses the "Ellis Rule", i.e., that deaccessioning is fine "provided that you ensure that the institution or individual to whom you sell commits in some binding form to equal or higher conservational standards and equal or higher public access...
"The current strictures around deaccessioning do not encourage either intelligent, vigilant conservation or wider public access"
Posted on January 05, 2009A bit more on deaccessioning. I?ve mentioned on more than one occasion a piece from a couple years back by Adrian Ellis, the founder of AEA Consulting. Adrian and I had a number of interesting conversations around that article when it came out, and, prompted by the latest deaccessioning brouhaha ? and in particular my recent exchange with Richard Lacayo (see here and here, and, for an earlier exchange last summer, ?Rule Utilitarianism in Iowa City? and this response to it) ? he sent along the following over weekend (with permission to post it)...
Where were we?
Posted on January 05, 2009Right. Deaccessioning.The blog will be back in gear tomorrow, but, to kick off the New Year, here's a terrific post by Michael O'Hare, the Cal-Berkeley professor who was quoted in the New York Times article I discussed before the break. You really should read the whole thing, but a few tastes:"I defy any reader of this [anti-deaccessionist] discourse to infer a goal behind the assertions and pronouncing that could be stated in public with a straight face...
Meet Mr. Pareto
Posted on January 05, 2009One more roundup of deaccessioning posts, and then it's on to other matters (I promise!).Tyler Green stakes out the position that it's NEVER alright "for arts institutions to sell off art in order to keep the doors open": "If an institution, such as the National Academy or someone else, can't operate effectively enough to stay open, it should close...
Slaloming
Posted on December 31, 2008Richard Lacayo has a characteristically thoughtful response to my latest post on the deaccession wars. Essentially, he embraces the slippery slope argument:"If the profession didn't discourage museums from using their collections as a piggy bank, I suspect a lot of them would be doing it more often, and not bothering with the hard work of fund raising...
Deaccessioning Debate in the New York Times
Posted on December 29, 2008Jori Finkel had an evenhanded, full page story in yesterday's Arts & Leisure section under the headline: "Whose Rules Are These, Anyway?" She includes me among those who ask: "Why ... is it so wrong for a museum to sell art from its collection to raise badly needed funds?":"Donn Zaretsky, a New York lawyer who specializes in art cases, has sympathized with the National Academy at [The Art Law Blog], asking why a museum can sell art to buy more art but not to cover overhead costs or a much-needed education center...
The Horror
Posted on December 23, 2008Christopher Knight relates the gory details of what happened to an Eakins painting previously deaccessioned by the National Academy in order to raise funds for conservation of its paintings collection.It seems -- and I can barely type this through the tears that are staining my keyboard -- it ended up at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art...
"I don?t think any of us were prepared for the aggression with which they came after us" (UPDATED)
Posted on December 23, 2008In this morning's New York Times, Robin Pogrebin has a detailed look at the circumstances that led to the National Academy's decision to sell a couple of paintings.She points out that the academy is "on a financial precipice": with a $4 million annual budget, it "has been running a deficit for five years, and this year?s shortfall is estimated at around $1 million...
MOCA Chooses the Broad Option (UPDATED 2X)
Posted on December 23, 2008News out of Los Angeles this morning that "the board of the financially strapped Museum of Contemporary Art has voted to accept a $30-million bailout offer from billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad":"The Broad deal, to be announced Tuesday, ends speculation that the museum might opt to accept a merger offer made last week by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art...
MOCA Update
Posted on December 19, 2008From Diane Haithman's LA Times story this morning:"The museum's federal tax returns show that early in this decade, it had spent all $20 million of its unrestricted funds to meet routine operating costs. By mid-2007, it had borrowed an additional $7.5 million from 'restricted' accounts, designated by donors for specific uses...
Maybe it depends on how you define "profit"
Posted on December 19, 2008Brett Littman, the executive director of The Drawing Center, writes in The Art Newspaper about "one of the most complicated and thorny issues in the museum world today," namely, "Who owns a work of art that is produced, developed and partially or fully paid for by an institution? At the end of the exhibition, should the work be given to the artist with no strings attached to sell later in a commercial gallery?"He says there is "no clear consensus" among museum directors, and notes that "some" institutions require the artist (or her dealer) "to reimburse their investment in the production of the work when it is sold...
More on Deaccessioning
Posted on December 17, 2008My friend Libby Ellis of a href="http://www.aeaconsulting.com/"AEA Consulting/a has been following a href="http://theartlawblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/trust-me.html"the/a a href="http://theartlawblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/is-it-logical-option-yes-is-it-probable...
"You started as a lawyer. As far I'm concerned, you became a glorified fence"
Posted on December 16, 2008Robert Mardirosian, convicted last summer of possessing stolen goods, has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison. Story here. For background, see here and here.
"Museums in this day and age have to learn how to share better"
Posted on December 16, 2008When I read Carol Vogel's story today about the Brooklyn Museum's decision to transfer ownership of its costume collection to the Met, I found myself wondering what the deaccession police would say about it. After all, here was a museum parting with a collection Vogel tells us is "widely considered one of the best in the world" -- a collection, we have recently been reminded, that, like all museum collections, is held "in trust" for The People, the way a bank holds the assets of its depositors...
MOCA Merger?
Posted on December 16, 2008The big news today was that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has presented MOCA's board with a plan to merge the two institutions. Diane Haithman and Mike Boehm of the LA Times have the story here, and Haithman talks to LACMA director Michael Govan about the proposal here.
"Is it a logical option? Yes. Is it a probable option? No, probably not"
Posted on December 15, 2008Lee Rosenbaum breaks the news this evening that "the NY State Board of Regents' Cultural Education Committee this afternoon voted in favor of revised rules ... which would prohibit most museums and historical societies in the state from using deaccession proceeds to defray debts, operating expenses, and most capital expenses...
Trust Me
Posted on December 15, 2008Lee Rosenbaum posts excerpts from a "ringing manifesto" sent by the president of the American Association of Museums to the NY State Board of Regents on Friday. In them, he makes two main points:1. "With a private collection, you may be able to see it today, but you have no assurance that you will see it tomorrow...
Ninth Circuit Affirms "Renoir Wars" Decision
Posted on December 15, 2008Rebecca Tushnet on the "wonderfully chewy case": "The court found the jury?s verdict on false advertising was supported by substantial evidence that the Societe made a false statement in commercial advertising about its own or another?s product."For background, see here.
More MOCA (UPDATED)
Posted on December 15, 2008Mike Boehm and Kim Christensen's LA Times story this weekend on the financial crisis at LA MOCA mentions the museum's habit of borrowing from restricted funds -- "contributions that donors have made for specific purposes such as acquisitions":"Whether any laws were broken hinges largely on what restrictions were spelled out in gift agreements detailing donors' wishes...
"It was not clear what became of the art"
Posted on December 15, 2008The Art Market Monitor notices an art connection in the collapse of Dreier LLP. From the New York Times on Saturday:"The law offices themselves ... were like modern art galleries. In court papers filed this week, the comptroller for the law firm reported that $30 million to $40 million of the firm?s assets had been spent on art...
"It's about saving the cultural property of mankind" (UPDATED)
Posted on December 15, 2008The BBC News on retired FBI Art Crime Special Agent Bob Wittman. "For nearly two decades, usually masquerading as a crooked art dealer with links to the Mafia or the Colombian drug cartels, he has run undercover sting operations, luring criminals into selling him stolen works of art" -- but now he's "forging a new career as a private art-security consultant...
"Is art really this static?" (UPDATED 2X)
Posted on December 11, 2008Derek Fincham also weighs in on the National Academy deaccessioning, making an interesting comparison with the situation at LA MOCA: "We might point to [MOCA's] financial mismanagement, but how much of this financial difficulty can be focused on the decision to focus on the art itself, on the acclaimed exhibitions...
"I believe history is history and that you can?t turn the clock back"
Posted on December 11, 2008Sir Norman Rosenthal, exhibitions secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts from 1977 to 2008, argues in The Art Newspaper for an end to Nazi restitution cases: "There should now surely be a statute of limitations on this kind of restitution. If we were still in 1950 and the people who owned the Manet or the Monet were still alive, then it would surely be correct to give these paintings back, but not now and not to grandchildren and great-grandchildren...
Deaccession Questions
Posted on December 10, 2008In The Amherst New Era Progress, Christa Desrets reports that the former director of Randolph College?s Maier Museum of Art, who resigned in protest over the school?s decision to deaccession four paintings last year, "has been granted a fellowship with the Smithsonian Institution to conduct research for a book on the practice of selling items from museum collections for profit...
Christie's Suit
Posted on December 10, 2008Josh Baer reports that "Yoon Young Im and Doss Inc have sued Christie?s for $235,000 alleging they sold a work that was claimed to be stolen during WW 2."The Courthouse News has some more details: "A South Korean art collector sued Christie's for $235,500, the amount she paid for a Marie Laurencin 'Portrait' in 1991...
It's On
Posted on December 09, 2008Peru has finally gone ahead and filed a lawsuit against Yale seeking the return of the school's Machu Picchu artifacts. Paul Needham has the story in the Yale Daily News:"Peru's 31-page complaint ... was lodged in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday by the Washington law firm that has represented Peru since last fall...
Bad Review
Posted on December 08, 2008From ARTINFO.com:"The Protestant paramilitary Michael Stone has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for attempting to murder Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness during a one-man attack on the Northern Ireland Assembly in November 2006 ...
"Where else in the world can you find something the size of a postcard with paint on it worth $5 million?"
Posted on December 08, 2008The Miami New Times had a piece last week, timed to coincide with Art Basel, on "the rising tide of international art theft," much of it centered around South Florida. The bottom line:"'The art world is very unregulated, and a lot of deals get done by handshakes and by the dealer's word,' says Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, the Langley-based manager of the FBI's art theft program...
A Basquiat Settlement
Posted on December 08, 2008Back in April, I mentioned a lawsuit filed by Gerard DeGeer against the Basquiat Authentication Committee, Stellan Holm, and Carl Flach over the Committee's refusal to declare a work DeGeer owned authentic.My friend Ted Poretz, who represented Stellan Holm in the lawsuit, tells me that the lawsuit has now been dismissed and the Basquiat Authentication Committee has reviewed additional materials presented to them and ruled the work genuine.
"Fiduciary duties carried the day. At the end of the day, the directors have a legal duty to the Academy, not the AAMD"
Posted on December 07, 2008Like Berkeley's Michael O'Hare, Jack Siegel (author of the Desktop Guide for Nonprofit Directors, Officers, and Advisors) thinks the AAMD's apoplexy about the recent sales by the National Academy Museum is unwarranted:"Normally, we agree with AAMD?s tough stand on deaccessioning, particularly if the sales proceeds are used to pay current operating expenses...
CA VARA Case
Posted on December 06, 2008The Contra Costa Times reports on an interesting VARA suit out of California: "According to the complaint, Frank Romero's automobile-themed 'Going to the Olympics,' a mural which had adorned the Alameda Street underpass of the Hollywood (101) Freeway since 1984, was destroyed by [the California Department of Transportation] in June 2007...
Waxing Apoplectic
Posted on December 06, 2008Michael O'Hare, Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at Cal-Berkeley, on the AAMD's reaction to the news that the National Academy Museum had sold two paintings:"The sale is conditioned on agreement to display the works, and they're doing it to be able to show more art to more people ...
Another Minor Suit
Posted on December 06, 2008Collector Halsey Minor, already engaged in a lawsuit with Sotheby's, has now sued Christie's too. The Charlottesville Daily Progress reports:"Minor filed suit against art auctioneer Christie?s Inc. on Wednesday in San Francisco, alleging that the New York-based company had hindered his sale of seven Richard Price paintings worth an estimated $25 million...
"We had a choice of selling or becoming part of the dustbin of history"
Posted on December 05, 2008It seems the National Academy Museum in New York recently sold two important paintings. Lee Rosenbaum is on the(ir) case. (Like you needed me to tell you that.) She posts a statement from the Association of Art Museum Directors condemning the sale here...
"Yet by putting art ahead of the bottom line, the Museum of Contemporary Art has nearly killed itself"
Posted on December 05, 2008The New York Times has a front page story today on the LA MOCA mess.
"The art collection represents significant value to the debtors' estates"
Posted on December 04, 2008The bankruptcy court gave approval yesterday for Lehman Brothers to sell its $8 million art collection. Story here.
Fair Enough
Posted on December 04, 2008The Center for Social Media has put together a "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use" that aims to "clarif[y] the fair use of copyrighted materials for teaching and learning, putting an end to copyright confusion for educators."Temple's David Post:"There's something of a 'political' slant to this, it should be noted...
"The possibility of buying a forgery is one of the enduring consequences of the structure of the art and antiquities trade"
Posted on December 04, 2008Derek Fincham notes that Sotheby?s withdrew "an important 13th century belt buckle" from an Old Masters auction last night after questions were raised about its authenticity. Asks Derek: "Though this object was discovered before its sale, how many are not?"
More on the Phillips Deal
Posted on December 02, 2008Judd Tully reports that "although the sums involved in the private transaction were not released, a source familiar with the deal says that Mercury paid approximately $60 million for its majority share, of which 'around 50 percent' was to cover Phillips?s debt...
"It's quite beautiful even though it isn't the same"
Posted on December 02, 2008Back in 2006, in a post about two works by American artists that were destroyed when they fell off the wall at the Pompidou Center, I noted that "in a nice additional touch, the museum has extended an invitation to the artists to remake the works at the museum?s expense...
"Copia has struggled to find its footing since opening in November 2001"
Posted on December 01, 2008Copia, "the ambitious food, wine and art museum in Napa, Calif.," has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
"This interest may be routine, but it's rarely good news to get a letter from an attorney general"
Posted on December 01, 2008The Los Angeles Times editorial board weighs in on the troubles at MOCA.
Members Only
Posted on December 01, 2008Josh Baer says "it seems that the reporter at Law.com didn't get it quite right about Judge Cahn's ruling as to whether Gerard Basquiat came to Christies; as the Basquiat Authentication Committee or from the estate. Maybe Judge Cahn isn't so clear either...
Copyright in painting style?
Posted on November 25, 2008Frank Pasquale on Thomas Kinkade's apparent attempt to establish broad intellectual property rights "over a style and manner of painting and image-crafting": "It's a tricky legal question as to what critical mass of stylistic detail in a Kinkade painting is enough to warrant copyright protection when another is inspired/corrupted by it...
Long Beach Museum Settlement
Posted on November 24, 2008The Long Beach Museum of Art and their former director have settled their lawsuit. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. For background, see here.
"It doesn't mean anything other than that they have been made aware that there may have been a diversion of assets"
Posted on November 24, 2008The LA Times's Mike Boehm reports that the financially troubled LA MOCA has released the following statement:"MOCA has received a letter from the California Attorney General's office. The California Attorney General has broad jurisdiction and oversight over California non-profits, including MOCA...
Dealer Arrest
Posted on November 24, 2008From the Daily News:"A New York art gallery owner was nabbed Friday for commissioning dozens of knockoffs of Matisse, Calder and others that he passed off as the real thing. Giuseppe Concepcion was arrested in Florida on charges of trafficking in phony artwork and scheming to dupe clients, Manhattan federal prosecutors say...
Pre-members
Posted on November 20, 2008Regarding the recent decision discussed here, Josh Baer wonders how it's possible that the Basquiat Authentication committee could possibly have told Christie's to pull the work from auction in 1990 when the committee wasn't formed until 1994. I haven't seen the complaint, but, in the Judge's decision, the issue is finessed by describing the allegation to be that "two members of the Basquiat Committee had previously viewed the Painting" -- in other words, two people who would eventually become members of the Committee, though, the Committee not yet having been formed, they were not members at the time they viewed it.
"The current law must be changed as it is unfair to artists"
Posted on November 19, 2008In The Art Newspaper, ADAA President Roland Augustine writes in support of The Artist Museum Partnership Act.
The End of the Rebate
Posted on November 19, 2008A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that Sotheby's had announced that it was done with guarantees. Now Christie's too says it will "for the most part, give guarantees only in 'exceptional circumstances'" . . . and also announced it will "not be rebating any of the buyer's fees back to the seller...
"The current laws are not working"
Posted on November 17, 2008The New York Post reports that the City Council "last week began considering limiting the number of art vendors to two per block" in certain areas.
Fraud on the (art) market?
Posted on November 17, 2008There was a decision earlier this month in a NY state court case that could have far-reaching implications for the auction houses.In 1990 Tony Shafrazi Gallery bought a Basquiat painting at Christie's. In 1991, Shafrazi sold the work to collector Guido Orsi...
A Million Distortions is a Statistic
Posted on November 10, 2008Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento spots another case of "institutional censorship and curatorial alteration," this time in New York: "After complaints to the city Buildings Department, and concern from the Urkainian community in the East Village, Cooper Union removed a giant banner with a reproduction of a Picasso drawing of Joseph Stalin" that had been put up by Norwegian artist Lene Berg...
Machu Picchu Suit Approved (UPDATED)
Posted on November 10, 2008Peru has reportedly approved a plan to bring a lawsuit against Yale for the return of the Machu Picchu artifacts. BBC News story here. Paul Needham remains the go-to guy at the Yale Daily News.The parties seemed to have resolved their differences last September, but, according to the Associated Press, that deal "fell through over a dispute over how many artifacts were to be returned...
"The door [is] essentially closed on that part of our business"
Posted on November 07, 2008The Art Market Monitor reports that Sotheby's is done with guarantees.
Minor Skirmishing
Posted on November 06, 2008In the Halsey Minor-Sotheby's litigation, the parties are skirmishing over whether Minor's separate class action lawsuit in California can proceed, but, in their most recent brief, filed earlier this week, Sotheby's gets in a few jabs on the substance (all citations omitted):"Minor argues in conclusory terms that 'because Sotheby?s employs a disclosure standard that contravenes the mandates of New York City?s auction house disclosure law, Minor has sought redress for this systematic violation on a classwide basis...
"Charities Can Expect Increased Giving in an Obama Administration"
Posted on November 06, 2008"Tax experts say."
"I was in shock. I was in a black hole."
Posted on November 03, 2008The Boston Globe's Cate McQuaid has the story of painter Nick Lawrence, who in 2004 "stopped by his studio at the Boston Center for the Arts and found that 20 years' worth of paintings and works on paper, totaling almost 1,200 works of art, had gone missing...
Checking in on the Curator Constables
Posted on November 03, 2008A while back, I noted that the London police were recruiting art historian-types to form a volunteer art squad. Now, The Art Newspaper has a report "on how this innovative scheme is working."Derek Fincham comments: "This seems to be a good idea generally, and if it helps the Arts and Antiques Unit, that must be a good thing...
New Masters Program
Posted on October 31, 2008ARCA (The Association for Research into Crimes against Art) has announced a new Masters Program in international art crimes studies. The first program will start next May in Italy; the application deadline is Dec. 1. See here for more information.
WTF
Posted on October 30, 2008Lee Rosenbaum notes that the painting that was the subject of the documentary "Who the #$%& is Jackson Pollock?" is being offered for sale by a Toronto gallery for $50 million.If it sells, it will edge out the next most expensive piece ever sold at this gallery by a mere $49,991,000...
Indictments
Posted on October 29, 2008Derek Fincham points to a report of two men being indicted for looting Native American sites in Nevada. He thinks it may be connected to the big California antiquities investigation which Roxanna Brown played a role in.
"Brown became?and remains?the only person charged in the fraud probe"
Posted on October 29, 2008Seattle Weekly updates the story of Roxanna Brown, who died in federal custody last May, four days after being arrested in connection with an antiquities smuggling investigation.
Painting Found, Owner Lost
Posted on October 24, 2008The Winchester (MA) Star has a story on one of the "more than 300" works left behind by our old friend Melvyn Kohn/William Kingsland.
"They provided collectors with invented, written biographies of nonexistent artists, complete with signatures"
Posted on October 24, 2008Derek Fincham points to this story of a mother-and-son team of art dealers in New Orleans whose scam was to "buy inexpensive Chinese paintings from wholesale distributors and then market and sell them, at a large profit, as works created by [fictional] Louisiana artists...
Salander Update
Posted on October 24, 2008The bankruptcy court has approved the retention of Gurr Johns to help Salander-O'Reilly sell off the more than 4,000 artworks it owns in order to pay creditors. (Approximately 400 creditors have filed claims totaling more than $300 million.) According to Bloomberg's Philip Boroff, "Gurr Johns will receive a retainer of $10,000 a month, plus $300 an hour for court appearances plus 2...
Flag Law
Posted on October 23, 2008Tyler Green's been doing a whole series on the flag in contemporary art (start here). From an art law perspective, the key cases are Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 197 (1989), and United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990), which established that flag-burning is constitutionally protected speech...
"I just felt the whole time it was up it was not what I intended"
Posted on October 22, 2008Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento calls attention to a controversy at UCLA, where curators apparently removed one element of artist Maya Lujan's work from a group show without her consent.Assuming Lujan's contribution to the show was a single work of art, how is that not an "intentional distortion ...
"A move which further blurs the boundaries between auction houses and dealers"
Posted on October 22, 2008The Art Newspaper reports that Phillips de Pury will be representing photographer Annie Leibovitz. Phillips already represents the estates of photographers Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin, but this is the first time it will represent a living artist. According to the article, Phillips "would not disclose what commission it will take ...
Hiding in Plain Sight
Posted on October 20, 2008Both Lee Rosenbaum and Richard Lacayo pick up on Christopher Knight's post last week on Gov. Rendell's comment that "I think it's been 14 or 15 years since Ray Perelman first came to me with this idea to move the Barnes." Lee is "suprised" by the statement: apparently, while "Perelman's feelings about the project have long been known," what "wasn't previously revealed so explicitly was his direct and early role in lobbying the Governor on behalf of the move...
"The spectre of forgery chills the receptiveness?the will to believe?without which the experience of art cannot occur"
Posted on October 20, 2008Peter Schjeldahl reviews two new books on "the case of Han van Meegeren, the boldest modern forger of Old Masters (as far as we know)."More here.Related post here.
I guess it depends on how you define "sudden"
Posted on October 17, 2008Christopher Knight finds it significant that, at Wednesday's ground-breaking ceremony, Gov. Rendell mentioned that "it's been 14 or 15 years since [art patron] Ray Perelman first came to me with this idea to move the Barnes." The implication seems to be that this revelation is inconsistent with the official story told by supporters of the move -- namely, that "the financial crisis facing the Barnes Foundation circa 2000 was the reason ...
2011
Posted on October 16, 2008From the AP: "Construction of The Barnes Foundation's new downtown home is slated to be complete by the end of 2011, a timetable that comes after years of legal battles over the future of the foundation and its multibillion-dollar art collection. Demolition of a former juvenile jail on the site is slated to begin this winter, with construction to start in fall 2009, officials announced at an event Wednesday evening...
Distinction without a difference
Posted on October 16, 2008Sergio calls my attention to this story from a few weeks back about the use in an Anthropologie store in downtown Seattle of some work that looks a lot like a work created by a couple of artists and shown at a Portland, Maine nonprofit art space called The Map Room in 2005...
Minor Disagreement
Posted on October 15, 2008In response to this post about his dispute with Sotheby?s, Halsey Minor sent me the following email (and permission to print it):"Donn, just a few small facts you may wish to bear in mind. I do not live in New York. I split my time between San Francisco and Los Angeles...
Be Reasonable
Posted on October 15, 2008Interesting rescission decision [$] in today's NY Law Journal in a state court case involving Christie's. In 2002 a company called SWCA signed an agreement with Christie's authorizing them to sell a Picasso sculpture for $5 million. The agreement granted Christie's the right to rescind the sale if it "reasonably determines that the sale may expose Christie's" to any liability, "including liability resulting from claims relating to ...
Happy Ending for Sad Premonitions
Posted on October 14, 2008The Goya engraving stolen in Colombia last month has been "found in a Bogota hotel room after a tip-off, investigators said." BBC News story here.
Fighting Forgery
Posted on October 14, 2008In today's New York Law Journal, Joseph Gioconda argues that "the art community can learn from the actions taken by the luxury goods and consumer products industries as they face a similar threat from counterfeiters. These industries respond by demanding stricter penalties for offenders and stronger federal anticounterfeiting laws...
"People are finally able to see what all the fuss has been about"
Posted on October 14, 2008Nashville Public Radio reports that "the famous Stieglitz collection at Fisk University is in the public eye for the first time in nearly three years. ... The school had to meet a court deadline last week to put the art back on public display." (Chancellor Lyle's March decision gave the school until Oct...
Some Kinda Love
Posted on October 13, 2008From ARTINFO: "Artist Ed Stross is facing 30 days in jail, two years probation, and a $500 fine for adding the word 'love' to his own mural in Roseville, Mich., a Detroit suburb." The ACLU is apparently making a last ditch effort to get the case re-heard...
Back to you, Professor Tate
Posted on October 13, 2008Gans, Crawford, and Blattmachr respond to Joshua Tate's response to their piece in the Yale Law Journal's "Pocket Part" on the estate taxation of post-death publicity rights.
No Sale
Posted on October 13, 2008The ARTnewsletter reports that "the Board of Regents of the State of Iowa announced that it will no longer consider a possible sale of Jackson Pollock?s Mural."No word on whether they have agreed not to consider considering the possibility of possibly considering a sale.
Art futures
Posted on October 13, 2008Online prediction market Intrade has created a futures market based on the Mei Moses All Art Index. The Financial Times has the story here. Here is the relevant page at Intrade.
"IMMEDIATE CASH ONLY"
Posted on October 13, 2008Bloomberg reports that a former Enron exec is being sued by a New York gallery "for allegedly trying to extort more than $150,000 by claiming a painting he bought was a forgery. Historical Design, Inc., an art gallery on East 61st Street in Manhattan, said Shankman purchased three works of art in November 1997 for $40,000...
"It?s inexcusable and it?s intolerable, and it needs to change"
Posted on October 13, 2008An art law story in, of all places, the sports pages of the New York Daily News: Wayne Coffey looks at New York's proposed "dead celebrities bill," focusing on the case of tennis legend Arthur Ashe. He reports that the legislation "is expected to be reintroduced in January," and adds:"The Authors Guild, the nation?s largest society of published authors, among other arts organizations, has lobbied hard against the bill, viewing it as a massive assault on the First Amendment...
A Minor Update
Posted on October 13, 2008Lee Rosenbaum had an update on Friday on Halsey Minor's battle with Sotheby's. Minor has filed an answer and counterclaim to Sotheby's breach of contract action in the Southern District of New York, and he's also filed a class action complaint in federal court in San Francisco...
Dream On
Posted on October 10, 2008More from Carol Vogel today on the appearance of the Steve Wynn-owned "La Rêve" in New York (see earlier post here). The show opens Wednesday at Acquavella Galleries.
More on the Langmuir Decision
Posted on October 09, 2008Gregory Gibson, author of Hubert's Freaks (about Bob Langmuir's Arbus photos), criticizes this post of mine (as well as "nearly every other article on the affair") for "characteriz[ing] Bayo Ogunsanya as an innocent 'collector,'" when the truth is that "as Bayo admitted to me himself, he was a dealer who for years had been buying items at storage unit auctions and selling them at flea markets, ephemera shows and on eBay...
Not Happening
Posted on October 07, 2008Public Knowledge's Gigi Sohn reports that, with Congress adjourned, it's wait till next year for the orphan works bill.
Friede Family Feud
Posted on October 06, 2008In today's New York Times, the "indispensable" Kate Taylor reports on a series of lawsuits surrounding a 4,000-piece collection of tribal art from New Guinea that is "generally regarded as the best of its kind in private hands." The collection had been promised by John Friede to the de Young Museum in San Francisco, but "litigation in three states, with [Friede's] two brothers, the museum and Sotheby?s auction house all laying claim to the art," has put the gift in doubt...
Sold!
Posted on October 06, 2008It appear Phillips de Pury has been sold to a Russian luxury goods company. The Art Market Monitor has the story.
Fight the power
Posted on October 03, 2008You may have seen the news last week that the Corcoran Gallery plans to deaccession 10 paintings in December. You didn't think Lee Rosenbaum would take this lying down, now did you?
"Ogunsanya was an unsophisticated memorabilia collector who simply bought a trunk at storage house auction"
Posted on October 03, 2008A motion to dismiss was denied [$] last week in the case of the memorabilia collector who claims he was duped into selling a bunch of previously unknown Diane Arbus photographs for $3,500. See earlier posts here, here, and here (where I noted that "the buyer's lawyer calls the suit 'frivolous,' but if the plaintiff can show that the buyer did in fact know the works were by Arbus, he would seem to have a pretty good claim of 'unilateral mistake'")...
Orphan Works Update
Posted on October 03, 2008The San Francisco Bay Guardian politics blog had an item yesterday on the orphan works bill:"The bill would deem 'orphaned' any copyrighted work whose author can?t be located by a 'reasonably diligent search.' Artists fear that vague standard could allow individuals and corporations to steal artwork for any personal or commercial purpose after going through the motions of search...
"Turn the lights off and keep the car running"
Posted on October 02, 2008The New York Times profiles street artist Shepard Fairey, who's been arrested 14 times, 15 "if you count a brief detention in Japan."
Ugh
Posted on October 01, 2008Another day, another frustrating VARA decision. This time, it was in artist Chapman Kelley's lawsuit against the Chicago Park District for removing his work from a local park. Story here. After a bench trial, the district court has ruled that VARA did not apply, for two reasons:1...
Resale Agreements
Posted on October 01, 2008Judd Tully has a piece in the October 2008 issue of Art+Auction on "the little-known but widespread practice of so-called artist/gallery resale agreements in primary market transactions" -- which "basically require or request the buyer to agree, in writing or otherwise, to give the gallery or artist the right of first refusal, usually for a limited time, when the work is about to be resold...
Setting Sun
Posted on October 01, 2008One last link to the New York Sun, which will be missed. On Monday, Kate Taylor had an update on the disputes involving the works of outsider artist Martín Ramírez. Apparently the litigation involving 17 works owned by Maureen Hammond is "close to settlement," but now "the estate is looking into its possible rights to other Ramírez works, including [10 in the collection of] the Guggenheim...
On Hold
Posted on September 30, 2008Wired News reports that the House won't be taking any action on the orphan works bill until after the Nov. elections. Apparently they've got more important business to deal with.
Renoir Recovered
Posted on September 29, 2008From this morning's New York Times: "Italian police have recovered a Renoir painting that was stolen from a private collection 33 years ago .... Following a tip from an art critic, Vittorio Sgarbi, who was enlisted to evaluate the work by a gallery owner ...
"Britain's art collections are taking a beating"
Posted on September 29, 2008Also via David Nishimura, the Guardian reports:"Details released under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Gallery, the Tate and the V&A, reveal that dozens of works have been dented, scratched, dropped and vandalised over the past five years...
"Amateurs, beware"
Posted on September 29, 2008David Nishimura on the Robert Mardirosian conviction: "With top-rank artworks, thieves often find out that it's not easy to turn them into cash. The only crooks who seem to turn a consistent profit are those who go for a quick ransom payment -- but I suspect that the only ones who manage to pull it off are those who have some experience in the field...
Orphan Works Act Update
Posted on September 28, 2008It's passed in the Senate. Now on to the House, which, as Photo District News points out, has been considering a slightly different version.
Genuine Faker
Posted on September 28, 2008The U.K. Independent has the latest on famous forger John Myatt, mentioned earlier here and here (and soon to be the subject of a major motion picture). He currently has a show at Harrods in London.
Embezzlement Suit
Posted on September 28, 2008Fruitlands Museum is suing its former deputy director and chief financial officer (and three of her children) for an alleged embezzlement scheme:"The suit alleges that Kempton and her children obtained credit cards in the museum's name and made personal purchases...
Le Rêve on View
Posted on September 28, 2008The Picasso painting that Steve Wynn put his elbow through in 2006 will be publicly exhibited for the first time since the accident in a show opening Oct. 15 at Acquavella Galleries in New York. More here from Bloomberg's Lindsay Pollock. Wynn ended up suing Lloyd's of London over the proper valuation of the loss (he claimed it was $54 million)...
"Just as when you sell a painting at Sotheby's, nobody knows what it's worth until the auction is over"
Posted on September 26, 2008Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
"Too far, and not far enough"
Posted on September 24, 2008Mark Dery on the orphan works bill:"As written, the OWA won?t solve anything. With its impossibly vague talk of 'reasonable compensation' and 'diligent' searches, its fundamentalist faith in the private sector (commercial registries) and technological quick-fixes (image-search technologies), the OWA is, as Lessig argued on his blog, a bill that both 'goes too far, and not far enough...
"The easy part is stealing it; the hard part is selling it"
Posted on September 22, 2008"Living legend" FBI art-squad agent Robert Wittman retired last week. Stories here and here. Earlier post here.Next chapter: he's going to work for the Fox Rothschild law firm, to "assist security directors in museums, galleries and auction houses to protect their collections and represent collectors...
Catching Up
Posted on September 22, 2008Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento points to a couple of stories I missed last week.One:"Thieves have stolen an engraving by Spanish master Francisco de Goya from a temporary exhibition in Colombia. The engraving ... was one of 80 by the Spanish artist on loan from the Goya Fuendetodos Cultural Corporation of Zaragoza, Spain...
"The greatest and most important earthwork in the world was potentially threatened by a corporation that wanted to make a buck"
Posted on September 22, 2008It's Spiral Jetty week over at Tyler Green's place. From today's opener: "The question is: Is Spiral Jetty threatened by future commercial development? And are arts organizations, most of which have little or no experience in dealing with the confluence of interests and entities involved in preserving an artwork in the landscape, using all available and appropriate measures to save the Jetty?"I mentioned this story (and my client, the artist Nancy Holt) earlier here.
"Please know that you need to remove our logo and the NFL logo from all images"
Posted on September 19, 2008The Washington Post reports on the latest squabble involving sports artists and trademark rights. At her 43(B)log, Rebecca Tushnet has a pithy summary: "painter paints a picture of Redskins player in uniform; wishes to sell painting; now there?s a dispute over the presence of Redskins [trade]marks in the painting...
Nelson-Atkins-Lawsuit
Posted on September 19, 2008The Kansas City Star: "The Kansas City Council has interfered with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art?s ability to use its own real estate, according to a new lawsuit filed in federal court. The lawsuit, which the gallery?s foundation and trustees filed Wednesday, asked a judge to stop the city from enforcing an ordinance the council passed this summer that barred the museum from putting offices on property it owns near the gallery...
"These works belong, properly, in the place where the largest number of people can enjoy and learn from them"
Posted on September 17, 2008An interesting student Note in the Notre Dame Law Review on fractional gifts of art (and I don't say that merely because it credits me with giving a name -- the "mismatch problem" -- to the most serious problem with the 2006 legislation on the subject)...
Savage Suit
Posted on September 17, 2008From the New York Post: "A prominent art dealer is suing the makers of a movie that portrays him having incestuous three-way sex with an ex-girlfriend and the son who murdered her."The movie is "Savage Grace," starring Julianne Moore. The art dealer is Sam Green.
"Morganelli said that he is not looking to target any specific voting demographic by making this effort a part of his agenda"
Posted on September 16, 2008The Temple News has more on Democratic candidate John Morganelli, who has made the Barnes battle an issue in the Pennsylvania attorney general election. "If he becomes attorney general, Morganelli would like the case reopened so that a judge can make a decision based on 'more balanced evidence...
Recovery
Posted on September 16, 2008Dutch detectives have recovered five 17th-century paintings that were stolen from the Frans Hals Museum in 2002. "The Golden Age works, worth millions of dollars, were found after an 18-month investigation by Dutch police who used undercover agents to crack the case and worked closely with Britain's Serious and Organized Crime Agency...
"Anyone with a touch of larceny in his heart cannot but thrill to hear of such feats of expert-foxing legerdemain"
Posted on September 15, 2008Terry Teachout on Jonathan Lopez?s ?The Man Who Made Vermeer: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren.?Here is another review, from the New York Sun: "In the case of art fraud, however, whatever admiration we feel for the skill of a forger who passes off a modern fake as a venerable Old Master and makes fools of the experts is mixed with a sharp sense of betrayal...
"The only party with the authority to seek to enforce those conditions is the attorney general"
Posted on September 12, 2008So argues . . . the attorney general, in the Fisk-O'Keeffe appeal. The Tennessean reports here. Lee Rosenbaum thinks "it's time that Fisk realized that it's squandering money on a protracted, losing lawsuit that could be better spent on education (or on maintaining its distinguished art collection)...
Miro Suit
Posted on September 12, 2008Josh Baer: "Frank Ribelin has sued Tom Schmidt and Christie?s alleging they tried to sell a work of his that had been stolen from the Jesuit Dallas Museum."The Courthouse News Service has more. The work is a Miro. Ribelin says it was stolen in 1991...
Heads Roll
Posted on September 11, 2008Or at least a head:"David Mickenberg has resigned as director of Wellesley College's Davis Museum and Cultural Center, two weeks after news broke that the museum's prized 1921 painting by Fernand Léger had gone missing."Geoff Edgers has the full story in the Boston Globe...
"The thief, or thieves, was either very smart or very, very lucky"
Posted on September 10, 2008The Los Angeles Times:"The side door of the home in the hills of Encino was unlocked on the Saturday morning in late August. The elderly owners were in a back room, otherwise occupied. The maid had stepped out. So the thief stepped in -- and made quick work of the wealthy real estate investors' multimillion-dollar art collection...
More on Taxation of Postmortem Publicity Rights
Posted on September 09, 2008Back in April, I mentioned a piece in the Yale Law Journal "Pocket Part" examining the estate tax implications of some newly enacted California publicity rights legislation. In the current "Pocket Part," SMU's Joshua Tate responds.
"The problem concerns the exploitation of works whose authors or rights holders cannot be located"
Posted on September 08, 2008Columbia law professor Jane Ginsburg on the proposed orphan works legislation.A taste:"The bills define a 'qualifying search' as a 'diligent effort to locate the owner of the infringed copyright.' ... To assist in searching, section 3 of the bills provides that the Copyright Office is to keep a database of pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, and the effective date of the act, with respect to those works, is delayed by four years (1/1/09 for other works; 1/1/13 for pictorial, graphic and sculptural works)...
"They are also charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice"
Posted on September 08, 2008"Five men have appeared in court accused of demanding £4.25m for the safe return of a Leonardo da Vinci painting. The Madonna with the Yarnwinder was taken from Drumlanrig Castle ... in August 2003. Its disappearance from the stately home became Britain's biggest art theft; an international hunt for the painting followed and it appeared on the FBI's top 10 most wanted pieces of stolen art...
More on the Sotheby's-Minor Suit
Posted on September 05, 2008The 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...
Minor Dispute
Posted on September 04, 2008Bloomberg reports that Sotheby's is suing Cnet founder Halsey Minor in the Southern District of New York for failing to pay $16.8 million for the purchase of three works of art, including the "Peaceable Kingdom" recently sold by Ralph Esmerian.Minor "said in an interview today that he refused to pay ...
Kick-off
Posted on September 04, 2008From Artnet News: " The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago is hosting an event with the Art Dealers Association of America, Sept. 8, 2008, 6-8 pm, designed to draw public attention and support to the 'Artist Museum Partnership Act,' which is currently languishing in Congress...
Phish Food
Posted on September 03, 2008The Guardian reports:"A convict on death row in America has agreed to let his body be made into a work of art if his final appeal against execution fails. Gene Hathorn, who has been on death row since 1985, has given his consent for artist Marco Evaristti, the bad boy of the Danish art scene, to use his body as an art installation...
Duluth Deaccessioning
Posted on September 03, 2008Responding to my post yesterday connecting Nigel Warburton's thoughts on Scotland's Titian problem to various recent U.S. deacessioning controversies, Derek Fincham points out that "the difference in Scotland and the UK is the process is somewhat more regulated...
"The lawsuits definitely impacted our enrollment because of the uncertainty they brought"
Posted on September 02, 2008From the AP: "Lawsuits that challenged Randolph College's decisions to go coed and to sell valuable artwork have been resolved, but they apparently are having a lingering effect. The school's enrollment this fall is the lowest in about four decades, and officials say that's because prospective students were confused about the school's future...
"Has any museum or gallery ever been placed in such an appalling predicament?"
Posted on September 02, 2008The Times Online: "Not only has John Leighton, director-general of the National Galleries of Scotland, got to find £50 million in only four months for Diana & Actaeon, one of Titian's masterpieces, but he has to find another £50 million in four years to buy its pendant, Diana & Callisto...
Lost
Posted on August 27, 2008The Boston Globe's Geoff Edgers reports that a Leger painting "has been lost - perhaps unintentionally thrown out - by Wellesley College's Davis Museum and Cultural Center."The school has already collected on an insurance claim for the work, "in the area" of $2...
"The central legal issue, obviously, is who owns the work today"
Posted on August 27, 2008Obviously.This week's Village Voice has more on the Martín Ramirez lawsuits:"The Ramirez family argues that because the artist had been institutionalized, he didn't have the capacity to administer his affairs, including giving away his work. And [Dr...
Oh Gee
Posted on August 25, 2008The Gee's Bend lawsuits have apparently been resolved. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.See here for the background.
Into the Woods
Posted on August 25, 2008In today's New York Times, Nicolai Ouroussoff profiles architect Lebbeus Woods.The article doesn't mention it, but Woods was involved in one of the more high profile copyright infringement lawsuits of recent years:"Consider the case of Lebbeus Woods vs...
Tattoos and Copyright
Posted on August 25, 2008Everything you ever wanted to know, via Rebecca Tushnet's 43(B)log.
Bitter
Posted on August 22, 2008I was flipping through the Fisk University appellate brief, and this passage caught my eye (p. 26):"It is with bitter irony that Fisk notes that the proposal by Crystal Bridges, which the Chancellor found in September 2007 to be clearly superior to the pending settlement agreement ...
Today's Iowa Pollock Commentary
Posted on August 22, 2008Wall Street Journal leisure and arts page editor Eric Gibson in today's paper: "With luck, the chorus of condemnation will forestall any Pollock sale by the University of Iowa."Lee Rosenbaum cheers him on.Responding to this post of mine yesterday, Richard Lacayo agrees that "some sales are justifiable" -- but thinks this is not one of them...
"To me, he is a living legend"
Posted on August 22, 2008In today's Wall Street Journal, Kelly Crow profiles FBI undercover art-crime investigator Robert Wittman, who's retiring later this year after "two decades impersonating shady dealers and befriending thieves."Dan Kois says "there's everything you need for a movie: guns, danger, sexy naked paintings, and institutional dismissal ? the FBI apparently ignored Wittman's requests for more agents for years...
Don't Mention It
Posted on August 22, 2008The Washington Post: "Managers of a downtown office building yanked a sculpture called 'Unmentionables . . . then and now' from an exhibition last week after tenants complained that the art was inappropriate. The offending art, by Joyce Zipperer, ....
Rule Utilitarianism in Iowa City
Posted on August 21, 2008Responding to this Felix Salmon post, Richard Lacayo makes a more sophisticated case for the no-no-never position on deaccessioning:"[T]he problem with selling the Pollock ... is that it would represent a further worsening of the (so far limited) trend by colleges to look at their campus art collections as assets that can be stripped and sold off to pay for other needs...
"A terrible idea"
Posted on August 20, 2008Richard Lacayo is back, and has some thoughts on the Iowa-Pollock controversy: "All the same, the Board of Regents is still going forward with its effort to determine the painting's market value. There's no deadline set for when it has to report back with the magic number, but we should all be watching...
"The prospect of drilling in the lake requires more than the usual attention to the sensitivities of the site"
Posted on August 20, 2008ARTINFO.com reports that "the Utah Division of Oil, Gas, & Mining has refused a request from the Pearl Montana Exploration company to drill for oil near Robert Smithson's earthwork sculpture Spiral Jetty, constructed in 1970. In a letter from the State of Utah's Department of Natural Resources to the company, obtained by the community group the Friends of Great Salt Lake, it states inadequacies in the application and notes, 'The prospect of drilling in the lake requires more than the usual attention to the sensitivities of the site...
Recovery
Posted on August 20, 2008"Brazilian police have recovered the second of two Pablo Picasso works stolen from São Paulo's Pinacoteca do Estado museum on June 12."
Guilty (UPDATED)
Posted on August 19, 2008Robert Mardirosian has been found guilty of possessing stolen property. "The 74-year-old Mardirosian faces a maximum of 10 years in prison at sentencing, scheduled for Nov. 18."UPDATE: More from the Boston Globe here.
The View From London
Posted on August 19, 2008The U.K. Independent had a story this weekend on the Barnes saga: "Horror at the move stretches far beyond Latch's Lane. To the New York Times's Nicolai Ouroussoff, it is 'a crime', while the New Republic critic Jed Perl describes the pro-Parkway regime as 'cultural commissars'...
One Charge Dismissed
Posted on August 18, 2008The Boston Globe reports that the judge has thrown out the "transportation of stolen property" charge against lawyer Robert Mardirosian. He still faces a charge of possessing or concealing stolen property. The case was scheduled to go to the jury today.
Political Question
Posted on August 18, 2008Lee Rosenbaum cheers on PA Attorney General candidate John Morganelli.You can read Morganelli's full statement about the Barnes situation here.
Today's Iowa News
Posted on August 17, 2008The latest from the Des Moines Register on the possible Pollock deacessioning. Two interesting things, I thought:1. U of I Regent Michael Gartner responds to Tyler Green's conflict of interest concerns: "Gartner called Green's blog post 'bizarre' and said he and his wife aren't conspiring to bring the Pollock painting to Des Moines...
Broken Glass
Posted on August 15, 2008Yesterday I mentioned Noah Charney's four categories of art crime, the first of which is vandalism. Today's New York Times has news of a stained-glass window by Marc Chagall that was shattered by vandals in France over the weekend at the Saint-Étienne Cathedral.
More Iowa Reactions
Posted on August 15, 2008Derek Fincham: "I find it very interesting that many of the calls for anti-deaccessioning are very contrary to the kind of art cosmopolitanism and sharing of art and culture that many have advocated, notably James Cuno."The Art Market Monitor: "One of their proposals was a sale to another institution with rights to display the work...
"Art crime now funds, and is funded by, organized crime?s other enterprises, from the drug and arms trades to terrorism"
Posted on August 14, 2008Noah Charney on "how the four main categories of art crime influence the art market."
"Mural doesn't belong to 'the people of Iowa' -- it belongs to nobody, or to everybody"
Posted on August 14, 2008Felix Salmon weighs in on the Iowa Pollock:"Some paintings belong not to 'the people of Iowa' so much as to the people of the world, and belong in a world-class collection. Which, frankly, the University of Iowa Museum of Art isn't. Remember that the idea was never to simply sell Mural off to the highest bidder; it was to sell it to another museum...
Ramírez Lawsuit
Posted on August 14, 2008The Los Angeles Times's Mike Boehm reports on a fascinating dispute involving the work of artist Martín Ramírez:"A bicoastal legal battle has erupted over who owns 17 drawings by Martín Ramírez, whose artworks, created while he lived in California state mental institutions until his death in 1963, now fetch six-figure sums...
Fisk Appeal
Posted on August 14, 2008Nashville Public Radio has a brief summary of the appeal just filed by Fisk University in the O'Keeffe case: "Among other arguments in the appeal briefing, Fisk says O?Keeffe always wanted to see the collection in a major museum. That?s why if she were alive, attorney say, she wouldn?t mind the school selling a 50-percent stake in the collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas...
"Opponents to monetizing the Pollock have been forcefully vocal"
Posted on August 13, 2008I like Lee Rosenbaum's one-line description of the general reaction to the news that the University of Iowa was considering maybe, possibly, perhaps finding out what it could get for its Pollock in a sale to a public institution that would agree to lend it back to the school from time to time: "bemoaners of the lost art have been noisily catastrophizing...
Barnesstorming (UPDATED)
Posted on August 13, 2008The battle over the Barnes has apparently become an issue in the Pennsylvania Attorney General campaign. Democratic candidate John Morganelli says, by not opposing the move, incumbent Tom Corbett "failed to represent the wishes of Dr. Barnes and this community...
"Methodology can devolve into mind mush"
Posted on August 13, 2008András Szántó has some thoughts on the "Galenson Ranking," discussed last week here: "This exercise in solipsistic reductionism is a bit like mistaking the warped reflection in a fun-house mirror with reality itself. Even that may be giving too much credit to the theory...
The Kingsland Saga
Posted on August 12, 2008The FBI is now saying that "at least 20 pieces" from the collection William Kingsland left behind are stolen, including a million dollar Giacometti bust. They've gone ahead and posted photos online "in the hope that the rightful owners will come forward and claim the works...
"It's not a can of peas. We get into these very strange situations when we start thinking about our museum in an asset- or economic-oriented way"
Posted on August 12, 2008Tyler Green interviews the director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art about the school's recent announcement that it would look into what a (certain kind of) sale of the Jackson Pollock it owns might bring.They value the work for insurance purposes at $100 million.
More Iowa
Posted on August 12, 2008Tyler Green has more today on the brewing deaccessioning controversy at the University of Iowa. (He refers to the current proposal to find out what the painting at issue might be worth as an "assessment/possible forced deaccessioning.")Among other things, Tyler is concerned about conflicts of interest in that the wife of the regent "who first called for the university to explore a forced deaccessioning" is on the board of the Des Moines Art Center: "Gartner's position with the university's board of regents and his wife's at DMAC raises serious questions about whether Gartner is trying to leverage a forced deaccessioning of the UIMA Pollock to a museum in which his wife is active...
Trial Starts
Posted on August 12, 2008A criminal trial began today relating to the 1978 theft of seven paintings from a Massachusetts collector, mentioned earlier here and here. Seventy-three year old retired lawyer Robert Mardirosian faces federal charges of possessing and transporting stolen goods.
"He advocates a new type of economy that allows both market competition and people to freely share their art"
Posted on August 12, 2008Larry Lessig's new book, Remix, coming this fall, "argues that the legal system is making criminals out of young people who produce entertaining or informative videos, music, and other art works through piecing together parts of others? works."
0.14% for art
Posted on August 09, 2008Felix Salmon says artists are being shortchanged at the new US embassy in Beijing.
"Selling art can be a tempting proposition for colleges in financial woe"
Posted on August 09, 2008The Des Moines Register has more on the possible Pollock deaccessioning at the University of Iowa (mentioned a couple days ago here).I thought this bit was interesting:"Gartner said the regents should determine the value of the painting if sold to a museum - not a private collector - that would agree to occasional viewings at the U of I...
On the move
Posted on August 08, 2008Inga Saffron says the relocation of the Barnes is picking up steam.
Here we go again?
Posted on August 07, 2008Tyler Green spots what may be the next great university deaccessioning battle: the University of Iowa has authorized a study to determine the value of its 1943 Pollock mural. Story here. "Regent Michael Gartner [who requested the study] ... said the painting was estimated to be worth more than $150 million several years ago...
The Pledge
Posted on August 06, 2008The New York Sun's Kate Taylor has a short piece on the ADAA's 50-artist pledge in support of the pending Artist-Museum Partnership Act: "In the hope of spurring Congress to pass a bill allowing artists to take fair market-value tax deductions on works they donate to public institutions, the Art Dealers Association of America is promising to secure donations by 50 artists to museums in 50 states upon the bill's passage...
Chrismas Suit
Posted on August 05, 2008A reader calls to my attention a story I missed from a few weeks ago:"Doug Chrismas, a veteran Manhattan and Los Angeles art gallery owner, found himself in the middle of a $1 billion international fraud case last week after federal agents seized a $1...
"Quantification has been almost totally absent from art history"
Posted on August 04, 2008Today's New York Times has a story on University of Chicago economist David Galenson and his attempts to import "quantitative methods" to the study of art history.Among his ideas is a ranking of 20th century artworks by the number of times they're reproduced in art history textbooks (mentioned once before here)...
Caravaggio Theft
Posted on August 02, 2008There are reports of a Caravaggio having been stolen from a museum in Odessa this week. "Authorities believe that the thief or thieves bypassed the outdated alarm system by removing panes of glass to enter the facility." Story here.
"The kind of incident where people fall across a cordon in a gallery is very unusual"
Posted on July 30, 2008This morning's New York Times reports that "a visitor at an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London on Saturday slipped and fell into a nine-foot ceramic sculpture, smashing it into hundreds of pieces .... The damaged sculpture, ... valued at approximately $11,900, was part of an exhibition organized by the artist Tracey Emin...
For Sale
Posted on July 29, 2008Lee Rosenbaum catches a report in the New York Times real estate section that the Salander-O'Reilly townhouse is up for sale . . . for $75 million.
"She says it's not just about the money. She says her motivation all these years is finding out the truth about her painting."
Posted on July 28, 2008Arizona's East Valley Tribune had a long story this weekend on a 62-year old Scottsdale real estate agent who "is the latest person to publicly come forward with the claim that she may own a Jackson Pollock painting." She says she bought it for $900 in 1969 at an art auction in King of Prussia, Pa...
Two Suits
Posted on July 24, 2008Josh Baer reports:"In an interesting lawsuit Giancorrado Ulrich has sued Sotheby?s seeking $16 million. They allege, which Sotheby?s denies, that the 'Parmigiano' old master painting 'Rest of the Flight Into Egypt' was never returned to Ulrich?s agent in NY Marco Grassi after appraisal...
Stolen Art Settlement
Posted on July 23, 2008The lawsuit to determine ownership of three paintings stolen more than 30 years ago (mentioned earlier here) has been resolved. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette's report begins: "A federal judge in Rhode Island has ruled the Yoffie estate is the rightful owner of three paintings stolen from a Shrewsbury home ...
More on Fractional Gifts
Posted on July 22, 2008Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on the "Schumer-Grassley plan" to amend the fractional gift rules. It says "the senators could attach the changes to other tax legislation by the end of the year."Since the story goes over a lot of the same ground as Stephanie Strom's piece in the New York Times last week (discussed here), I don't have much to add...
"Specialists at banks and auction houses say that more of their clients recently are interested in borrowing against their art collections"
Posted on July 22, 2008Kate Taylor has a good piece in today's New York Sun on art financing.Related story (though a couple years old now) here.
Art Theft News
Posted on July 21, 2008Derek Fincham has a roundup. The tally includes one theft, two recoveries, and one prison sentence.
The Louis Vuitton Multiples Suit
Posted on July 17, 2008Lee Rosenbaum has a post today on the lawsuits recently filed against Louis Vuitton and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art alleging violations of the California print disclosure statute in connection with the sale of works by Takashi Murakami...
A Different Kind of "Orphaned" Work
Posted on July 17, 2008Daniel Grant in the Wall Street Journal on "the question what to do with [public] art that its owner no longer wants."
More on eBay and Fakes
Posted on July 16, 2008I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that a French court had held eBay responsible for fakes sold on the site. They're doing much better here in the U.S. From yesterday's New York Times:"In a long-awaited decision in a four-year-old trademark lawsuit against eBay brought by the jeweler Tiffany & Company, Judge Richard J...
At Sea
Posted on July 16, 2008There's a lengthy article in today's New York Times on complaints against Park West Gallery, which conducts art auctions on cruise ships. It reportedly does more than $300 million in annual revenue (on sales of nearly 300,000 artworks a year) and calls itself ?the world?s largest art dealer...
"Seeing this I can understand why you were so upset with me. ... I am sorry to have 'jumped the gun'"
Posted on July 15, 2008Yesterday's New York Sun had a short piece on a lawsuit filed by London dealer Michael Hue-Williams's Albion Gallery against artist James Turrell. Turrell is a client of mine, and I'm co-counsel on the case (with Greg Clarick), so I was disappointed that the reporter didn't give us a chance to comment before going to press...
"In recent years a number of advertising campaigns have seemed to draw their inspiration directly from high-profile works of contemporary art"
Posted on July 14, 2008Very interesting article by Mia Fineman in yesterday's New York Times on advertisers "being inspired by" or, more precisely in some cases, "stealing" work by contemporary artists. I'm quoted as follows:"Donn Zaretsky, a lawyer in New York who specializes in art law, is often approached by artists who perceive echoes of their own work in advertisements...
The Upside of Deaccessioning
Posted on July 11, 2008From Carol Vogel's Inside Art column in today's New York Times:"In November 2006 the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo caused an uproar when it announced its intention to sell dozens of older works in a series of auctions to raise money. Ultimately 207 works were sold at Sotheby?s for a total of $67...
"A good deal all around"
Posted on July 11, 2008Speaking of tax deductions for art donations, Tyler Cowen's review of Don Thompson's "The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art" in yesterday's New York Sun includes the following:"Most accomplished works of art end up in museums and are eventually accessible to the public; Mr...
Fractional Gift Update
Posted on July 10, 2008This morning's New York Times reports that "members of the Senate Finance Committee have agreed in principle" to "loosen stringent limits . . . that made partial gifts less advantageous for donors."It's worth quickly running through some history here, because the story leaves out one important chapter...
"Who loses out? The reader, the public, the people you want to spread the history to"
Posted on July 09, 2008EFF's Richard Esguerra spots "a clear, real-life example of the orphan works problem" in this recent New York Times article on a local high school history teacher and labor-of-love publisher of books of historical Brooklyn photographs who has been blocked from using certain orphan photographs in his forthcoming book on Canarsie:"Deborah Schwartz, president of the [Brooklyn] historical society ...
"What is the point of having lawyers at your disposal unless you can wage a trans-Atlantic battle over a piece of furniture that let you down?"
Posted on July 09, 2008The New York Times today has a story on the lawsuit between Ronald Perelman and Jacques De Vos, the Paris dealer who sold him the offending furniture. According to the story, a "tentative" settlement was reached in April, but everything's subject to a strict confidentiality agreement.
Ethics
Posted on July 09, 2008The "Ethicist" column in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine posed the following question:"My friend, a young artist at the start of his career, offered to sell me a 1 percent share in him for $9,000. I would receive a portion of his lifetime earnings but would have no say in the sort of work he did...
ARIS in The Sun
Posted on July 09, 2008Kate Taylor has a story in tomorrow's New York Sun on art title insurance, which at the moment is still being offered by just one company, ARIS. She slots me in as a "skeptic":"Of course, there are skeptics. The author of the Art Law Blog, Donn Zaretsky, said in an e-mail that he would be concerned about what he called the adverse selection problem ? namely, that 'the people who buy the coverage are more likely to be people who have a reason to be concerned about possible defects in title (and may in fact be acting on information they have but the insurer does not)...
"A mural is created in 1940 under a work for hire, but the work is not published . . ."
Posted on July 09, 2008". . . The author of the mural dies in 1950. What is the term of [copyright] protection?"Bill Patry poses the question. A consensus emerges in the comments.
"He began to believe in his own mythology"
Posted on July 09, 2008Judd Tully on Ralph Esmerian's (many) legal troubles.
"Experts say it could be a year before the case goes to trial and that Cutler and Solomon have already spent more than the painting?s estimated value"
Posted on July 09, 2008The Las Vegas Sun's Kristen Peterson has an entertaining update on the battle over a stolen Rockwell painting that ended up in Steven Spielberg's hands. I posted some thoughts about the case a little over a year ago. I think the issue still is going to be whether Solomon, the theft victim, reasonably should have discovered that the painting had been found back in 1989 (in which case he would lose on statute of limitations grounds)...
"It's a victory for booksellers and the arts community but most importantly for the First Amendment"
Posted on July 03, 2008That's the Indianapolis Museum of Art's Maxwell Anderson on the news that a federal court has ruled unconstitutional an Indiana law requiring bookstores and other retailers to register with the state if they sell "sexually explicit" material. Stories here and here...
"In case authentication groups don?t have enough troubles . . ."
Posted on July 03, 2008Josh Baer reports that "Donald Frangipani has sued HBO, Bryant Gumbel and others for 'defamation and RICO action arising from fraudulent statements concerning plaintiff?s previous authentication of (sports) memorabilia' for $5 million."More here from the UPI.
"I plan to secure pledges from fifty living American artists for one important work from their own collections that they would donate to a museum"
Posted on June 30, 2008That's ADAA president Roland Augustine's plan for convincing Congress to (finally) enact legislation permitting artists to get an income tax deduction when they donate their (own) artwork to museums. Daniel Grant has the story here. I'm not sure how effective the plan will be: no one doubts that changing the law would result in increased donations from artists...
eBay and Fakes
Posted on June 30, 2008Time magazine reports that a Paris court has ordered eBay "to pay $63 million in damages to units of the Paris-based luxury goods mammoth LVMH, after agreeing that the site had facilitated the sale of counterfeit versions of its high-end products, particularly Louis Vuitton luggage...
"What if all of this effort, time, and money spent over the past three years scaring visual artists into legislative action . . .
Posted on June 30, 2008. . . was instead spent solving the key problems that the constituency is complaining about?" Public Knowledge's Alex Curtis on the orphan works legislation.
Arrest in Monet Theft
Posted on June 30, 2008Bloomberg's Philip Boroff reports that "a Frenchman living in Florida was charged with attempting to sell a Clause Monet painting and three other artworks stolen at gunpoint last year from the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice, France."
Explosive Theory
Posted on June 30, 2008From The Art Newspaper:"A former curator from the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg ... has developed a new method for dating paintings in collaboration with Russian scientists which, she says, provides 'indisputable' evidence of whether a painting was made before or after 1945...
"To paraphrase the eminent metaphysician L.P. Berra, an event has not concluded until all activity associated with that event has ceased."
Posted on June 30, 2008One thing that remains unchanged after a week away at the beach: the Friends of the Barnes are still battling. Philadelphia Inquirer art critic Edward Sozanski sums up the state of play: "all that the Friends have left in what I expect will be a continuing guerrilla campaign is the moral argument...
"We recognized very well that the issue of standing, narrow as they were, did not favor us at all"
Posted on June 20, 2008The Philadelphia Inquirer has a post-mortem on the latest round of litigation over the Barnes Foundation's move.
More on the new antiquities guidelines
Posted on June 18, 2008Illicit cultural property go-to guy Derek Fincham weighs in on the new AAMD ethics guidelines for collecting antiquities: "Continued scrutiny of the antiquities trade is needed, despite these new ethical guidelines. I'm not sure much has really changed...
"In cases of armed robbery we can't run the risk of resisting, because there could be unforeseeable consequences for the employees and for the public"
Posted on June 17, 2008Derek Fincham has more on last week's Picasso theft in Brazil. He notes the "inherent tension between keeping galleries an open space for the public versus protecting against armed robbery. Such robberies seem to be taking place with regularity in Sao Paulo though, which may make displaying art to the public more difficult there...
"Art in a Time of Terror"
Posted on June 17, 2008Amy Goodman interviews artist Steve Kurtz. For some background on the Kurtz story, start here.
Not Appealing
Posted on June 16, 2008It's official: the Barnes case is over. Lee Rosenbaum reports that today was the deadline for filing a notice of appeal from Judge Ott's latest ruling, and both Montgomery County and the Friends of the Barnes have decided not to pursue the case any further.
Larry Lessig has signed his first online petition in many years (UPDATED)
Posted on June 14, 2008Against the proposed Orphan Works Act. The petition is here if you want to join him.UPDATE: I think it's safe to say Heather Hope will not be signing the petition: "I do not know all the ins-and-outs of the legislation, and maybe what is being proposed is not ideal...
Klimt Case
Posted on June 13, 2008Josh Baer:"Maggie Wachter has sued Paul Quatrochi alleging he reneged over the $1.2 million purchase of a Klimt drawing and she has also sued Day & Meyer alleging they will not return the artwork to her."
Salander Update
Posted on June 12, 2008Sunday is the deadline for submitting art claims in the Salander-O'Reilly bankruptcy. Bloomberg's Philip Boroff has the details.
"Lawyers for the men have said they did not realize the painting was famous when they took it"
Posted on June 12, 2008The two guys who stole a Goya painting while it was on its way to the Guggenheim from the Toledo Museum of Art in 2006 were sentenced to federal prison yesterday. The ringleader (who also "had an extensive criminal record") got five years; his accomplice got a year and a day.
Another Picasso Theft
Posted on June 12, 2008"Heavily armed robbers have stolen two engravings by Pablo Picasso from an art museum in downtown Sao Paulo."
"Obviously, they overpaid"
Posted on June 09, 2008Bloomberg.com reports:"An auction of European and American furniture and garden decorations from bankrupt Salander-O'Reilly Galleries LLC brought in $1.6 million, as collectors, dealers and interior designers scooped up items for a fraction of what Lawrence Salander paid for them in 2004...
Served
Posted on June 09, 2008A Harvard Law student has come up with a novel way of "bring[ing] out the flesh-and-blood ... life behind" the law. Via Tom Smith, who applauds the effort.
On Not Getting It
Posted on June 08, 2008Carolyn Wright says supporters of the orphan rights legislation like me (I didn't know I was one!) "don't get it" when we point out that registration with the new electronic databases the legislation contemplates would not be required. While she concedes that the proposed legislation "does not make registration with the private registries mandatory," she nevertheless argues that "registration will be required if photographers want the same protection for their works as they have now" and that "the OW Act takes away the statutory damages option unless the photographer registers the work with the private registry/registries...
Art Law, Briefly
Posted on June 07, 2008Lots of art law in the news the last few days:If the guards at LACMA tell you you're too close to an artwork, you'd better step back. Christopher Knight says "it's hard to imagine almost any scenario in which an art museum guard might shoot someone, but that bizarre thought keeps bumping around in your brain at BCAM...
Misconceptions
Posted on June 05, 2008Rashmi Rangnath, a Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge, addresses one of the "misconceptions" about the orphan work reform proposals:"Let me be clear. The orphan works bills would not require owners to take any steps not already required by copyright law to be eligible for copyright protection...
"There's nothing in any post-9/11 law that restricts your right to photograph"
Posted on June 05, 2008Glenn Reynolds on the increase in harassment of people taking pictures.
More on the "Assassination" Piece (UPDATED)
Posted on June 05, 2008Constitutional scholar Eugene Volokh:"I appreciate that the Secret Service have an important and difficult job to do, but based on this account -- and I realize that it may be in error or incomplete -- it seems to me they went beyond what is allowed. It makes sense that they would have talked to Arboleda, and tried to figure out what he was doing in the storefront...
Astor Update
Posted on June 04, 2008Brooke Astor's son has moved to dismiss the criminal case against him. It seems the thrust of his defense is going to be that the prosecution "cherry-picks" through a "clear pattern of well-informed generosity toward her only child" to allege that "other money and items that were transferred to Mr...
Today in Performance Art Legal News
Posted on June 04, 2008Ann Althouse has the rundown:First:Performance artist Yazmany Arboleda set up a show called "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama" in a storefront across the street from the New York Times offices in Midtown. He says: "It?s art...
Anne d?Harnoncourt
Posted on June 04, 2008William Grimes's New York Times obituary for the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Anne d?Harnoncourt closes with a mention of her crucial role in the Gross Clinic saga:"One of her recent achievements was a matter of local pride. In the fall of 2006, Thomas Jefferson University, a Philadelphia medical school, said that it would sell 'The Gross Clinic,' an 1875 masterpiece by the Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas...
"Even in Canada . . ."
Posted on June 02, 2008". . . art theft is more prevalent than most people imagine."
Salander Rugs
Posted on June 02, 2008Bloomberg's Philip Boroff reports on Tepper Galleries' auction Friday of "nearly 300 antique and 'semi-antique' carpets" from the bankrupt Salander-O'Reilly. No reserves, minimum bids of just $10. The sale raised about $250,000 in total.
"My aim is to show the beauty of death"
Posted on May 30, 2008UCLA lawprof Eugene Volokh comments on the legal aspects of German artist Gregor Schneider's planned performance piece that would include an actual person dying. His "tentative answer" is that it's probably legal: "The dying are as entitled to be in a place as anyone else, and invite people to visit them or see them...
White Flag
Posted on May 29, 2008Montgomery County is throwing in the towel in the Barnes fight. It will not appeal Judge Ott's most recent decision dismissing its challenge to the move.Now it's up to the Friends of the Barnes to decide what to do.
"It addresses a narrow but growing problem in a way that ensures that good actors and our culture benefit"
Posted on May 29, 2008Public Knowledge's Gigi Sohn spoke about the orphan works legislation at the Eighth Annual Intellectual Property Symposium today. The text of her speech is here. InformationWeek has a summary here.Among other things, she addresses what she calls "the fear, uncertainty and doubt" being raised by opponents of the bill, including the following:"Myth #4: The bills would mandate registration of all visual art in expensive, private registries, and not registering a work would automatically orphan it...
Randolph Sale
Posted on May 28, 2008Despite considerable opposition, Randolph College's deaccessioned Tamayo has just sold for more than $7 million at Christie's. Lee Rosenbaum breaks the news.
"Probably best left to bored, art-loving fictional playboys"
Posted on May 28, 2008One of the guest bloggers over at Matthew Yglesias's place has some fun (probably a little too much fun) with Smithsonian magazine's recent list of the ten "most incredible art heists of the modern era." She writes:"Whatever the reason, big heists are always fun to think about after the fact...
Today's Orphan Works Report
Posted on May 28, 2008The British Journal of Photography is urging its readers to oppose the U.S. orphan works bill:"The proposed legislation would legalise the use of such images if an attempt has been made to trace the owner. Critics - ie, pretty much anyone who trades on their own copyright ownership - say the proposals will kill international accords and encourage widespread theft...
Who knew?
Posted on May 28, 2008I learned from Instapundit this morning that "many claim" that the Indiana Jones character is based on Hiram Bingham, of Yale-Machu Picchu dispute fame.
More on Art Title Insurance
Posted on May 28, 2008BusinessWeek has an update on the art title insurance being offered by ARIS:"Art title insurance through ARIS has been available for purchase since June, 2006, and it has underwritten more than 300 policies. ARIS clients include private collectors, dealers, art funds, and major museums and investment entities, and the values of the works insured have ranged from $20,000 to $4 million...
Despite considerable opposition
Posted on May 27, 2008The New Yorker reminds us that leading Christie's two-day sale of twentieth-century Latin-American art this week is Rufino Tamayo's ?Trovador? -- "it is being sold off, despite considerable opposition, by the museum of Randolph College to benefit the school?s endowment...
"To what culture does the concept of 'cultural property' belong?"
Posted on May 27, 2008In today's New York Times, Edward Rothstein writes about James Cuno's "Who Owns Antiquity? Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage" (mentioned earlier here):"Seen in this light the very notion of cultural property is narrow and flawed. ... It may be useful as a metaphor, but it has been more commonly used to consolidate cultural bureaucracies and state control...
Esmerian Sale
Posted on May 27, 2008Ralph Esmerian sold his "Peaceable Kingdom" at Sotheby's last week for $9.7 million, reportedly a record for American folk art. As Bloomberg's Philip Boroff reports, Esmerian promised the work to the American Folk Art Museum back in 2000, but "about three years ago also pledged it to Sotheby's as collateral for a loan...
Booze Bust
Posted on May 27, 2008East Hampton gallerist Ruth Vered was taken away in handcuffs this weekend for serving alcohol at a gallery opening without a license. Both the Daily News ("Hamptons Gone Wild") and the Post ("Fine Whine") put it on the front page. You can watch video of the arrest here...
Some Salander News
Posted on May 24, 2008From Wendy Moonan's "Antiques" column in yesterday's New York Times:"One casualty of the bankruptcy of the Salander-O?Reilly Galleries ... is its largely unknown collection of decorative arts: European antiques, architectural ornaments and garden sculpture...
"It just shuts us down"
Posted on May 23, 2008An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer last week mentioned that Montgomery County is "unlikely" to appeal Judge Ott's latest decision in the Barnes case. The Friends of the Barnes are still thinking about it.The article also says the County/Friends are "looking west for a strategy" -- a reference to a recent decision of the Montana Supreme Court which the New York Times described as follows:"The Montana Supreme Court dismissed ...
No. 9
Posted on May 22, 2008Performance artist Karen Finley, no stranger to legal controversy, debuted a new, law-related piece tonight. Sewell Chan has the details.
Scream Back on View
Posted on May 21, 2008"Edvard Munch's masterpiece 'The Scream' goes back on display this week for the first time since it was stolen four years ago but has suffered permanent damage, museum officials said Wednesday. Masked gunmen stole the work and another Munch masterpiece, 'Madonna,' in a brazen daylight raid on the Munch Museum in August 2004...
"I think it?s better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission"
Posted on May 20, 2008A piece in this week's New York magazine notes that "Tom Sachs didn?t bother to get permission from Hello Kitty?s owner, Sanrio, before he installed his enormous Hello Kitty sculptures in front of Lever House." He says "Hello Kitty is so much a part of our popular culture, I don?t think anyone really owns it...
Paducah
Posted on May 20, 2008A story in the special Summer Travel section of this Sunday's New York Times on how art and law came together to revive the rundown town of Paducah, Kentucky:"[Artist] Mark Barone ... was fed up with the neighborhood and challenged the city to do something about it...
"I believe it is mostly neuroeconomics at work, namely that we are more excited by new offerings than by familiar offerings"
Posted on May 20, 2008Tyler Cowen on "the afternoon effect" for artworks -- i.e., "the observation that as an auction proceeds, the prices of the lots decline, even for identical goods (e.g., wines)."
Art, YouTube, and the Law
Posted on May 20, 2008The always-interesting Virginia Heffernan had a column in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine on an exhibition, at the Kitchen gallery, of videos chosen from YouTube. Rebecca Tushnet (who is also always interesting) gives a tour of the (many) IP issues the project raises, including whether the Times might be liable for linking to the videos ("inducement, anyone?").
Lessig on Orphan Works
Posted on May 20, 2008In a New York Times op-ed today, Stanford's Larry Lessig weighs in on the orphan works legislation making its way through Congress. He's against it: "This 'reform' would be an amazingly onerous and inefficient change, which would unfairly and unnecessarily burden copyright holders with little return to the public...
"Maybe it's the trustees and administrators who ought to be deaccessioned"
Posted on May 19, 2008Lee Rosenbaum notes, with displeasure, that Randolph College is about to sell one of the four works it originally planned to offer last November but which were then tied up in a (now withdrawn) lawsuit seeking to block the sale.Lee offers the following analogy in support of her no-deaccessioning policy: "If someone were to suggest that funds be raised by selling important books from the library, that (one hopes) would be a non-starter: Books go to the core of the college's educational mission...
So derivative
Posted on May 17, 2008Robert Bernstein and Robert Clarida had a piece ($) in yesterday's New York Law Journal on the recent string of cases dealing with the question whether a photograph of a three-dimensional object is a "derivative work" under copyright law. Two district courts have said no, but the Ninth Circuit and one district court have said yes...
Tolerable
Posted on May 17, 2008Interesting article by Columbia IP scholar Tim Wu on "tolerated use" -- "a term that refers to the contemporary spread of technically infringing, but nonetheless tolerated use of copyrighted works."Wu had a more accessible version, for a broader audience, at slate...
Rauschenberg
Posted on May 16, 2008The sad news of Robert Rauschenberg's death this week also means the end of one of the two lawsuits he recently filed over the sale of objects pulled from his trash. The Southwest Florida News-Press's Mary Wozniak reports:"Rauschenberg's death will nullify the federal lawsuit he filed against Naples artist Robert Fontaine under the Visual Artists Rights Act, said Lawrence H...
Barnes Suits Dismissed
Posted on May 15, 2008In a post in March on the Friends of the Barnes's legal papers, I wrote that I was "not convinced they've solved their standing problem."Today Judge Ott dismissed the various petitions on just those grounds. The decision is here. The Philadelphia Inquirer story is here...
"If you still have those pieces of paper, shred them or frame them as souvenirs"
Posted on May 15, 2008Lee Rosenbaum points out that yesterday was the last day to redeem the settlement coupons that were issued as part of the resolution of the Sotheby's-Christie's antitrust lawsuits several years back. She notes that, as of March 31, almost $42 million worth were still unredeemed...
Antiquities Death
Posted on May 15, 2008Strange, sad twist in the California antiquities investigation: "An internationally known expert on Asian art who was implicated in a scheme to smuggle looted antiquities from Thailand to Los Angeles-area museums died Wednesday at a federal detention center in Seattle four days after being arrested there on a visit from Bangkok...
Getty Sale
Posted on May 13, 2008I missed it last week, but it seems Getty Images has been acquired by the private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $2.4 billion. Story here. Earlier post here.