Copyright Law

Linkage

Posted on February 16, 2010
What's happening at Brandeis?How to spot a fake Giacometti?Judge in Italy orders return of Getty Bronze.

"Fresno is simply too big to be left without local access to art for its citizens"

Posted on February 16, 2010
Judith Dobrzynski points out that another Fresno art museum may be on the brink.She quotes a message from the director saying the museum is faced with "some very difficult decisions about the next season of exhibitions and educational programs," that they've "tightened [their] belts" and have "already made some critical decisions and adjustments" but are "still in a very vulnerable position...

Another VARA Decision

Posted on February 12, 2010
Via Clancco, a VARA ruling out of the Fifth Circuit. Courthouse News Service summarized the facts:"A Texas store owner and two local artists who transformed a wrecked Oldsmobile into a colorfully painted cactus planter with the message 'make love not war' were unable to convince the 5th Circuit that their expressive artwork transcends a city ban on junked cars...

"There?s really nothing like it in the history of photography. To sell it is criminal"

Posted on February 12, 2010
Earlier this week the NYT's Carol Vogel reported on the sale of the famed Polaroid photo collection:"The company ... became a victim of the digital age, going bust first in 2001 and again in 2008. The second time, after it was bought by Petters Group Worldwide, Polaroid was caught up in a $3...

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A Mathematical Approach to Art Forgery

Posted on February 10, 2010
NPR had a story today on Dartmouth math department chairman Daniel Rockmore, who "has developed a technique that is helping to determine the difference between excellent copy and the real McCoy."Sergio Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento says: "Now if only he could use math to figure out the solution to our current deaccessioning problem!"

"We can?t have people bid at our auctions and disappear without paying"

Posted on February 10, 2010
Bloomberg: "Sotheby?s is suing two Chinese for payment on $270,300 worth of antiques they won at its Hong Kong sale in October 'to send a message it won?t stand for defaults,' said Asia chief executive Kevin Ching. ... The U.S.- based auction house is also pursuing another buyer who won five antique paintings and wouldn?t pay...

"When questioned specifically on the Mackie case, she commented that Mackie was simply protecting his copyrighted work from infringement"

Posted on February 10, 2010
The Capitol Hill Seattle Blog has more on the public art copyright infringement lawsuit I mentioned earlier this week:"We looked into the issue of whether it is common for public art administrators to allow commissioned artists to retain the copyright...

Park West Update

Posted on February 08, 2010
Georgina Adam has the latest in the Financial Times on the Park West gallery lawsuits. The Art Market Monitor comments:"Adam reports that Park West sells 300,000 works of art each year generating as much as $450m. That?s a huge amount of art. It either explains the number of complaints against the firm?with so many customers there are bound to be some disputes?or mis-representing the value of art is a great business to be in...

"Screwed by the town of Cary"

Posted on February 08, 2010
Political protest or work of art?Photo here.

Linkage

Posted on February 08, 2010
The mafia informer and the stolen Caravaggio.Lawsuit over Basquiat painting.Guggenheim settles with Malevich heirs.

Public Art Infringement Suit

Posted on February 07, 2010
Jen Graves on a copyright infringement lawsuit by the creator of a public artwork in Seattle against a photographer who took a picture of the work and then listed it with a stock photo agency.Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento offers some thoughts:"One, it seems the piece was created 'more than 30 years ago,' so [the photographer] may want to look into the exact date of creation and publication and find out if these were before 1977, or between 1978 and March 1, 1989...

Linkage

Posted on February 07, 2010
The Seasonality of Art Theft.Latest Art Loss Register Report.A meritless Degas authenticity debate?Grosz claim dismissed.

"The [Fresno] Met next week will review auction house proposals for sale of The Met's art collection"

Posted on February 05, 2010
About 3,000 objects are about to leave the public trust.Background here.

"As the recession forces more museums to cut staff and programs, and even consider closing, critics of this policy complain it?s hard to justify"

Posted on February 04, 2010
Time Out Chicago on an exhibition at DePaul University Art Museum that's about deaccessioning.From the museum website:"Most museums remove items from their collections from time to time, a process known as deaccessioning. As a rule it is done discreetly, yet the process is fascinating and the issues it raises are profound: how is quality determined? are canons of taste immutable? This exhibition spotlights the deaccessioning of objects from DePaul's collection, inviting scholars from art history, philosophy, and anthropology?and visitors?to weigh in on the works of art and their fate...

Linkage

Posted on February 03, 2010
What is intellectual property for?$8 billion a year in art crime?Lawsuits over fake movie posters.

Magnum Sale

Posted on February 03, 2010
The NYT's Randy Kennedy reports that the Magnum photo agency has "quietly sold" its archive of more than 180,000 "press prints" ("the kind of prints once made by the collective to circulate to magazines and newspapers[; . . .] marked on their reverse sides with decades of historical impasto ? stamps, stickers and writing chronicling their publication histories ? that speaks to their role in helping to create the collective photo bank of modern culture") to MSD Capital, Michael Dell's private investment firm...

Linkage

Posted on February 02, 2010
"FBI investigates fake Clementine Hunter paintings." Related post here.Should museums pay parking taxes?Controversy over "recently discovered" plaster casts of Degas sculptures.An art crime novel.An interview with a collector of The Uncollectable Artwork...

"People are afraid to discuss the very possibility"

Posted on February 01, 2010
In the wake of her NYT op-ed, Judith Dobrzynski discovers that deaccessioning is "the Third Rail of the museum world."She also links to a radio show she did with Michael Rush, the former director of the Rose Art Museum, and you couldn't ask for a better example of the craziness of this whole conversation...

"White House goes after charitable deduction, again"

Posted on February 01, 2010
Politico's Ben Smith reports that the proposed tax change is back in this year's budget, but says: "expect the same fierce pushback to the write-off change -- and the same assumption on the Hill that it's dead on arrival -- as last year." More here from Mike Boehm of the LA Times...

A comeback for guarantees?

Posted on January 30, 2010
This Bloomberg piece on the state of the art market includes the following:"Christie?s, along with Sotheby?s and Phillips de Pury & Co., abandoned guaranteeing minimum prices to sellers at the end of 2008. Many owners of high-value pieces, particularly contemporary works, turned to private transactions rather than risk high-value works at auction in a falling market...

Tell me again about the "public trust" (a continuing series)

Posted on January 29, 2010
Carol Vogel's "Inside Art" column today reports that LACMA sold 16 works at Sotheby?s yesterday for $3.8 million (more than double the $1.7 million high estimate).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...

Reversed

Posted on January 28, 2010
At the close of his September 2007 oral ruling granting Mass MoCA's summary judgment in its lawsuit against artist Christoph Büchel, District Court Judge Michael Ponsor said: "I would just say, as an admonition, not to be overly comforted by my [decision], because I would imagine if this matter goes before the First Circuit, it will be scrutinized afresh, and only a reckless person would predict what the Court of Appeals is likely to do with the very complicated issues that this cases raises...

Bad to Worse

Posted on January 27, 2010
The LA Times reports: "Artist Shepard Fairey is facing a criminal investigation in connection with his admitted misconduct in the ongoing legal case with the Associated Press."Not good.Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento says: "To what extent will this affect the merits of the 'fair use' argument is unknown...

Hazardous

Posted on January 26, 2010
I've been meaning to flag Michael Rushton's characteristically thoughtful response to my post last week on the moral hazard argument against deaccessioning. He helpfully marshals a lot of the academic commentary on agency problems generally, though concedes "the literature on nonprofits is not as deep...

Linkage

Posted on January 25, 2010
A Tracey Emin forgery ring?London's ICA could close by May."A woman taking an adult education class at the Metropolitan Museum of Art accidentally lost her balance and fell into 'The Actor,' a rare Rose Period Picasso, tearing the canvas about six inches along its lower right-hand corner...

"The burden of concealing something really rips you open inside"

Posted on January 22, 2010
The LAT's Mike Boehm talks to Shepard Fairey, "who last fall admitted that he'd lied initially about which AP photo the 'Hope' poster was based on."

"Itself an exercise in spin"

Posted on January 21, 2010
More reviews of The Art of the Steal, the Barnes documentary which opens theatrically soon. Film Journal International says "claims of objectivity, made by the filmmakers at [the NY Film Festival], are an artful dodge: The title says it all. The filmmakers side with those who argue that the Barnes Collection has been stolen...

This one REALLY sells itself (UPDATED)

Posted on January 20, 2010
Felix Salmon on an artwork, by Caleb Larsen, that "is so commercial that it can?t be collected." The purchase contract apparently includes the following:"Artist has created a work of art titled 'A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter (2009)' ('the Artwork') which consists of a black box that places itself for sale on the auction website 'eBay' (the 'Auction Venue') every seven (7) days...

"As jobs and exhibitions continue to plunge off museum cliffs due to the recession, is the AAMD deaf and blind to the obvious?"

Posted on January 20, 2010
The Deaccessioning Blog on the "breaking news" I mentioned yesterday.

"One of the most elaborate and difficult acquisitions we have ever made"

Posted on January 19, 2010
In this Sunday's NYT Magazine, Arthur Lubow had an interesting article on artist Tino Sehgal, who makes "ephemeral' "live-action" works, a show of which opens at the Guggenheim later this month. The whole thing is fascinating, but, from an art law perspective, this bit caught my eye:"Since there can be no written contract, the sale of a Sehgal piece must be conducted orally, with a lawyer or a notary public on hand to witness it...

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