Copyright Law

Fairey in Court

Posted on March 09, 2009
But 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, 2009
The 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

"I'm somewhat disappointed in both sides by your arguments"

Posted on March 05, 2009

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

"Must I obey?"

Posted on March 05, 2009

Blingless

Posted on March 04, 2009

Eye on the Ball

Posted on March 03, 2009

"Love it or loathe it, though, 'Blue Mustang' is doing what art is supposed to do ? get attention"

Posted on March 02, 2009

Rose Roundup

Posted on March 02, 2009

Gold Digging

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

Nabbed

Posted on February 27, 2009

Status of the Rose

Posted on February 27, 2009

Fairey Nuff

Posted on February 27, 2009

"A captivating portrait of the world's biggest unsolved art theft"

Posted on February 26, 2009
The Wall Street Journal reviews Ulrich Boser's new book on the Gardner heist.

Fish Mural Suit

Posted on February 26, 2009
The 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, 2009
I 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, 2009
Artist 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, 2009
Hugh 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
In 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
The 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, 2009
ARTnews'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, 2009
In 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, 2009
Kriston 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, 2009
Jo 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, 2009
Variety reports that Painter of Light Thomas Kinkade has signed with Creative Artists Agency "in an effort to seek out TV, film and Internet projects."

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.