Copyright Law

Arbus Suit Settled

Posted on March 18, 2009
The 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, 2009
Lee 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
This week's New Yorker has a Talk of the Town piece on Chris Burden's seized gold (mentioned earlier here and here).

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"Arguing against a straw man to further the strict constructionist view of deaccessioning ..." (UPDATED)

Posted on March 16, 2009
That'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, 2009
The 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
A 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, 2009
LA 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, 2009
There'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, 2009
Lee 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, 2009
Three 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
Shepard 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, 2009
In 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
The 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...

Data Mining

Posted on March 11, 2009
Mark Durney looks at news coverage of art theft.

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, 2009
From 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, 2009
Those who would charge artist Shepard Fairey with hypocrisy (e.g.) have a little more ammunition.

Rose-colored glasses (UPDATED)

Posted on March 10, 2009
Christopher 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, 2009
Judd 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, 2009
From 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, 2009
UK 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...

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