Copyright Law

Distinction without a difference

Posted on October 16, 2008
Sergio 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...

Work For Hay-re

Posted on October 16, 2008
So who owns the copyrights?

Minor Disagreement

Posted on October 15, 2008
In 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, 2008
Interesting 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 ...

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Happy Ending for Sad Premonitions

Posted on October 14, 2008
The 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, 2008
In 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, 2008
Nashville 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, 2008
From 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, 2008
Gans, 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
Online 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, 2008
Bloomberg 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, 2008
An 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, 2008
Lee 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, 2008
More 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, 2008
Gregory 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, 2008
Public 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, 2008
In 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, 2008
It 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, 2008
You 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, 2008
A 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
The 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, 2008
Another 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, 2008
Judd 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, 2008
One 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, 2008
Wired 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, 2008
From 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, 2008
Also 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, 2008
David 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...

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