Copyright Law

"A clear case of injustice ends in victory for free speech"

Posted on September 30, 2009
The 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, 2009
That'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, 2009
Law.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, 2009
I 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...

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And We're Back

Posted on September 30, 2009
I'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, 2009
Brandeis 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Lawprof -- 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, 2009
More 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Writing 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, 2009
Lee 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, 2009
North American rights to "The Art of the Steal" have been acquired by Rainbow Media.

Cut

Posted on September 17, 2009
The 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, 2009
Newsday 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, 2009
New York magazine has some ideas.

Hello Cleveland!

Posted on September 17, 2009
Eric 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, 2009
Michael Rushton provides a list of readings to enrich your viewing experience of The Art of the Steal.

Art Theft and Rewards

Posted on September 16, 2009
Mark Durney offers some thoughts.

Wildflowers Oral Argument

Posted on September 15, 2009
Sergio 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, 2009
On 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, 2009
Massachusetts 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
ARTINFO.com reports on a lawsuit against a Florida dealer.

"Why not let the market work?"

Posted on September 14, 2009
IP 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, 2009
Carol 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, 2009
Holland 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."

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