Copyright Law

Trial Starts

Posted on August 12, 2008
A criminal trial began today relating to the 1978 theft of seven paintings from a Massachusetts collector, mentioned earlier here and here. Seventy-three year old retired lawyer Robert Mardirosian faces federal charges of possessing and transporting stolen goods.

"He advocates a new type of economy that allows both market competition and people to freely share their art"

Posted on August 12, 2008
Larry Lessig's new book, Remix, coming this fall, "argues that the legal system is making criminals out of young people who produce entertaining or informative videos, music, and other art works through piecing together parts of others? works."

0.14% for art

Posted on August 09, 2008
Felix Salmon says artists are being shortchanged at the new US embassy in Beijing.

"Selling art can be a tempting proposition for colleges in financial woe"

Posted on August 09, 2008
The Des Moines Register has more on the possible Pollock deaccessioning at the University of Iowa (mentioned a couple days ago here).I thought this bit was interesting:"Gartner said the regents should determine the value of the painting if sold to a museum - not a private collector - that would agree to occasional viewings at the U of I...

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On the move

Posted on August 08, 2008
Inga Saffron says the relocation of the Barnes is picking up steam.

Here we go again?

Posted on August 07, 2008
Tyler Green spots what may be the next great university deaccessioning battle: the University of Iowa has authorized a study to determine the value of its 1943 Pollock mural. Story here. "Regent Michael Gartner [who requested the study] ... said the painting was estimated to be worth more than $150 million several years ago...

The Pledge

Posted on August 06, 2008
The New York Sun's Kate Taylor has a short piece on the ADAA's 50-artist pledge in support of the pending Artist-Museum Partnership Act: "In the hope of spurring Congress to pass a bill allowing artists to take fair market-value tax deductions on works they donate to public institutions, the Art Dealers Association of America is promising to secure donations by 50 artists to museums in 50 states upon the bill's passage...

Chrismas Suit

Posted on August 05, 2008
A reader calls to my attention a story I missed from a few weeks ago:"Doug Chrismas, a veteran Manhattan and Los Angeles art gallery owner, found himself in the middle of a $1 billion international fraud case last week after federal agents seized a $1...

"Quantification has been almost totally absent from art history"

Posted on August 04, 2008
Today's New York Times has a story on University of Chicago economist David Galenson and his attempts to import "quantitative methods" to the study of art history.Among his ideas is a ranking of 20th century artworks by the number of times they're reproduced in art history textbooks (mentioned once before here)...

Caravaggio Theft

Posted on August 02, 2008
There are reports of a Caravaggio having been stolen from a museum in Odessa this week. "Authorities believe that the thief or thieves bypassed the outdated alarm system by removing panes of glass to enter the facility." Story here.

"The kind of incident where people fall across a cordon in a gallery is very unusual"

Posted on July 30, 2008
This morning's New York Times reports that "a visitor at an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London on Saturday slipped and fell into a nine-foot ceramic sculpture, smashing it into hundreds of pieces .... The damaged sculpture, ... valued at approximately $11,900, was part of an exhibition organized by the artist Tracey Emin...

For Sale

Posted on July 29, 2008
Lee Rosenbaum catches a report in the New York Times real estate section that the Salander-O'Reilly townhouse is up for sale . . . for $75 million.

"She says it's not just about the money. She says her motivation all these years is finding out the truth about her painting."

Posted on July 28, 2008
Arizona's East Valley Tribune had a long story this weekend on a 62-year old Scottsdale real estate agent who "is the latest person to publicly come forward with the claim that she may own a Jackson Pollock painting." She says she bought it for $900 in 1969 at an art auction in King of Prussia, Pa...

More on the cruise ship auction lawsuits

Posted on July 26, 2008
From law.com. Earlier post here.

Two Suits

Posted on July 24, 2008
Josh Baer reports:"In an interesting lawsuit Giancorrado Ulrich has sued Sotheby?s seeking $16 million. They allege, which Sotheby?s denies, that the 'Parmigiano' old master painting 'Rest of the Flight Into Egypt' was never returned to Ulrich?s agent in NY Marco Grassi after appraisal...

Stolen Art Settlement

Posted on July 23, 2008
The lawsuit to determine ownership of three paintings stolen more than 30 years ago (mentioned earlier here) has been resolved. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette's report begins: "A federal judge in Rhode Island has ruled the Yoffie estate is the rightful owner of three paintings stolen from a Shrewsbury home ...

More on Fractional Gifts

Posted on July 22, 2008
Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on the "Schumer-Grassley plan" to amend the fractional gift rules. It says "the senators could attach the changes to other tax legislation by the end of the year."Since the story goes over a lot of the same ground as Stephanie Strom's piece in the New York Times last week (discussed here), I don't have much to add...

"Specialists at banks and auction houses say that more of their clients recently are interested in borrowing against their art collections"

Posted on July 22, 2008
Kate Taylor has a good piece in today's New York Sun on art financing.Related story (though a couple years old now) here.

Art Theft News

Posted on July 21, 2008
Derek Fincham has a roundup. The tally includes one theft, two recoveries, and one prison sentence.

The Louis Vuitton Multiples Suit

Posted on July 17, 2008
Lee Rosenbaum has a post today on the lawsuits recently filed against Louis Vuitton and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art alleging violations of the California print disclosure statute in connection with the sale of works by Takashi Murakami...

A Different Kind of "Orphaned" Work

Posted on July 17, 2008
Daniel Grant in the Wall Street Journal on "the question what to do with [public] art that its owner no longer wants."

More on eBay and Fakes

Posted on July 16, 2008
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that a French court had held eBay responsible for fakes sold on the site. They're doing much better here in the U.S. From yesterday's New York Times:"In a long-awaited decision in a four-year-old trademark lawsuit against eBay brought by the jeweler Tiffany & Company, Judge Richard J...

At Sea

Posted on July 16, 2008
There's a lengthy article in today's New York Times on complaints against Park West Gallery, which conducts art auctions on cruise ships. It reportedly does more than $300 million in annual revenue (on sales of nearly 300,000 artworks a year) and calls itself ?the world?s largest art dealer...

"Seeing this I can understand why you were so upset with me. ... I am sorry to have 'jumped the gun'"

Posted on July 15, 2008
Yesterday's New York Sun had a short piece on a lawsuit filed by London dealer Michael Hue-Williams's Albion Gallery against artist James Turrell. Turrell is a client of mine, and I'm co-counsel on the case (with Greg Clarick), so I was disappointed that the reporter didn't give us a chance to comment before going to press...

"In recent years a number of advertising campaigns have seemed to draw their inspiration directly from high-profile works of contemporary art"

Posted on July 14, 2008
Very interesting article by Mia Fineman in yesterday's New York Times on advertisers "being inspired by" or, more precisely in some cases, "stealing" work by contemporary artists. I'm quoted as follows:"Donn Zaretsky, a lawyer in New York who specializes in art law, is often approached by artists who perceive echoes of their own work in advertisements...

The Upside of Deaccessioning

Posted on July 11, 2008
From Carol Vogel's Inside Art column in today's New York Times:"In November 2006 the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo caused an uproar when it announced its intention to sell dozens of older works in a series of auctions to raise money. Ultimately 207 works were sold at Sotheby?s for a total of $67...

"A good deal all around"

Posted on July 11, 2008
Speaking of tax deductions for art donations, Tyler Cowen's review of Don Thompson's "The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art" in yesterday's New York Sun includes the following:"Most accomplished works of art end up in museums and are eventually accessible to the public; Mr...

Fractional Gift Update

Posted on July 10, 2008
This morning's New York Times reports that "members of the Senate Finance Committee have agreed in principle" to "loosen stringent limits . . . that made partial gifts less advantageous for donors."It's worth quickly running through some history here, because the story leaves out one important chapter...

"Who loses out? The reader, the public, the people you want to spread the history to"

Posted on July 09, 2008
EFF's Richard Esguerra spots "a clear, real-life example of the orphan works problem" in this recent New York Times article on a local high school history teacher and labor-of-love publisher of books of historical Brooklyn photographs who has been blocked from using certain orphan photographs in his forthcoming book on Canarsie:"Deborah Schwartz, president of the [Brooklyn] historical society ...

"What is the point of having lawyers at your disposal unless you can wage a trans-Atlantic battle over a piece of furniture that let you down?"

Posted on July 09, 2008
The New York Times today has a story on the lawsuit between Ronald Perelman and Jacques De Vos, the Paris dealer who sold him the offending furniture. According to the story, a "tentative" settlement was reached in April, but everything's subject to a strict confidentiality agreement.

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