Copyright Law

"If the Met and Brooklyn had nothing to hide, they shouldn't have hidden it."

Posted on November 16, 2010
Lee Rosenbaum issues "a major correction" regarding the transfer of the Brooklyn Museum's costume collection to the Met a couple of years ago. I wrote about the deal here. (See also here.)Perhaps it wasn't what it initially seemed, but so long as any sales proceeds aren't used for operating expenses, it shouldn't be controversial under the Standard View on deaccessioning...

NOW the Warhol litigation is done with Joe Simon

Posted on November 15, 2010
The New York Law Journal reports (but I can't find a free link at the moment) that the Warhol Foundation antitrust litigation is over. The plaintiffs drop their claims against the Foundation, and the Foundation drops its counterclaims and request for sanctions...

Admission fees for the Smithsonian?

Posted on November 15, 2010
The NYT's Kate Taylor reports that the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction proposal includes a recommendation that the Smithsonian begin charging admission fees. More here from DCist.Matthew Yglesias says it's "a great example of a kind of pennywise and pound-foolish thinking about spending that often afflicts the political system":"What you would ideally do with these kind of public services?be it a museum or a subway or whatever?is take a good hard look at whether or not you really believe in providing the service...

"Tax uncertainty could hurt charitable giving"

Posted on November 15, 2010
USA Today reports. One of the issues is "the uncertain outlook for the estate tax." The article notes that "a 2004 study by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that permanent repeal of the estate tax would reduce donations to charity by up to 12%...

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Linkage

Posted on November 15, 2010
A Basquiat painting on loan to the the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris was defaced with a felt-tip pen.Who owns photos distributed via Twitter?Today was National Philanthropy Day.Dennis Hopper's estate is suing his widow, "accusing her of stealing $1.5 million in art from Hopper in the months before his death...

More on Art Title Insurance

Posted on November 11, 2010
The NYT's Kate Taylor reports that the publicly-traded Argo Group (total assets: $6.7 billion) has bought art title insurer ARIS.The Art Market Monitor says the move "legitimize[s]" art title insurance.I remain a skeptic.Dealer Ed Winkleman's "first response was to agree with the dealers who noted that it seemed a bit unnecessary," but news reports of a recently-discovered forgery ring have him rethinking that view...

"This is not an art gallery; this is completely illegal."

Posted on November 11, 2010
Twenty people have been arrested for visiting the Underbelly Project.

"Let me say this clearly for the record: the Board of Trustees is fully committed to President O'Leary's leadership of Fisk University."

Posted on November 11, 2010
In response to calls for her ouster, the President of Fisk's board of trustees released a statement defending her record:"For those upset by the fact that Fisk runs an almost $2 million annual budget deficit, he pointed out that the deficit has improved ? it topped $10 million in 2006...

"Charities Wrestle With Tax Uncertainty"

Posted on November 11, 2010
The NYT's David Cay Johnston reports.

The Debt Panel and Charities

Posted on November 11, 2010
"With tax reform as one of the five basic recommendations made, and no apparent sacred cows, it is not surprising that the current tax benefits enjoyed by charities are among the many targeted tax provisions. Here is how the three proposed tax reform options would affect those benefits...

"One of the most bizarre incidents in the history of art theft"

Posted on November 10, 2010
Noah Charney tells the tale.

A deaccessioning, of sorts

Posted on November 10, 2010
"A group of high-profile Fisk alumni are calling for the university?s embattled president, Hazel O?Leary, to resign."

"Wealthy households were more sensitive to the effects of tax policies on their giving, the report said."

Posted on November 10, 2010
Charitable giving down 35% in 2009.

"If the greater good would provide more dollars for a better library or to help in other ways, you have to look at that."

Posted on November 09, 2010
There's a $5 million Childe Hassam in a library in Erie, Pennsylvania.Would it be repulsive to consider selling it?

Costco-Omega Oral Argument

Posted on November 09, 2010
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in Costco v. Omega, a hugely important first sale doctrine case. Courthouse News Service has a summary. More here. Background here.

"That?s the problem when you chase your tail trying to ascertain a dead donor?s intent."

Posted on November 08, 2010
The Charity Governance Blog's Jack Siegel is not impressed with Judge Lyle's latest ruling in the Fisk case: "[T]he reader sees a judge?s heavy hand at work unsupported by the law or facts. Toto has pulled the curtain back and we see that the Wizard of Oz is just a mere mortal...

More on the Rivers Controversy

Posted on November 05, 2010
Vanity Fair has a long article on the controversy involving the films Larry Rivers made of his adolesencent daughters in the 1970s. Kate Taylor wrote about it in the New York Times this summer.One of the daughters wants the films turned over to her: "Emma declares her father guilty of nothing less than child pornography...

"The Court adopts none of the proposals outright. Instead, the Court orders a different plan." (UPDATED)

Posted on November 04, 2010
Judge Lyle issues what Lee Rosenbaum calls her "latest astonishing" ruling in the Fisk case: she will let the Crystal Bridges deal go through, but Fisk can keep only $10 million of the sales proceeds. The other $20 million has to go into an endowment fund outside of Fisk's control, to ensure that, even if Fisk were to someday close, the collection could remain (partially) in Nashville...

Easy, Cowboy

Posted on November 03, 2010
Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento flags news that "a photographer has sued Texas alleging a cowboy image on millions of vehicle inspection stickers is being used without his permission." The first hurdle, of course, is sovereign immunity.

"The initial stories were all saying that museums could start selling and use their art for operating expenses. That is not true at all."

Posted on November 02, 2010
The Maine Antique Digest has a story on the expiration of the "emergency" deaccessioning regulations in New York. You have to slog through lots of sky-is-falling spin, until, finally, in the next to last paragraph, there is this, from Clifford Siegfried, deputy chancellor at the board of regents:"[Much of what has been written is] just absolutely wrong...

"The exhibition has been mounted, illegally, in a long-abandoned subway station"

Posted on November 02, 2010
The New York Times on the Underbelly Project.

More on the Copyright Principles Project

Posted on November 01, 2010
Terry Hart looks at the subset of recommendations in the Copyright Principles Project report (mentioned earlier here) that "call for an increased role for the US Copyright Office within copyright law."

Linkage

Posted on October 28, 2010
Jail sentence for Tracey Emin forger.Jail sentence for TV auctioneer.Fake Wyeth seized.

"The art world's Bernie Madoff . . ."

Posted on October 27, 2010
". . . and his deceptions."

"Here?s my prayer for greater understanding of the truth behind the Barnes Foundation move"

Posted on October 27, 2010
Philadelphia native Bob Duggan:"I admire Dr. Barnes?s original intent. He wanted to bring modern art to the masses by putting his money where the mouth of aesthetic and educational philosopher John Dewey was. Somewhere along the way, however, that democratic ideal became lost in a web of visitor restrictions and zoning laws that threatened to bury the foundation alive...

Joe Simon may be done with the Warhol litigation . . .

Posted on October 26, 2010
. . . but the Warhol litigation isn't done with him.The Foundation's attorneys issued a statement today which closed as follows:"The resources Mr. Simon forced the Foundation to expend litigating against these meritless claims would have otherwise gone to funding its charitable mission of promoting the visual arts and preserving the legacy of Andy Warhol...

"The case is done. I can't do it anymore."

Posted on October 25, 2010
Big news over the weekend that Joe Simon is dropping his lawsuit against the Warhol Foundation. Jason Edward Kaufman has all the details. Background here.

Fisk Fund (UPDATED)

Posted on October 25, 2010
The chess match between the judge in the Fisk case and the Tennessee Attorney General continues. The AG has now submitted a new proposal that "clearly would most closely approximate Ms. O'Keeffe's intent," namely the establishment of a fund that has already "received commitments" that would ensure a permanent endowment "sufficient to generate the proceeds needed to pay the costs of keeping the Collection full-time at Fisk...

"Also unclear is the status of the museum's permanent collection"

Posted on October 22, 2010
The Chelsea Art Museum is in danger of closing. The Wall Street Journal reports:"In August, [the museum's director] said she had pledged the museum's entire collection as collateral for a ... loan to make an interest payment on the mortgage. That move appears to violate regulations of the state Department of Education's Board of Regents, which supervises and grants charters to museums...

"We actually had to read the judge's decree and agree to the project constraints"

Posted on October 22, 2010
The Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece today on the design of the new Barnes building, and the architects' efforts to ensure that "the Philadelphia gallery would replicate the Merion layout, and that Barnes's distinctive ensembles, which juxtapose Old Masters with Impressionists, and African masks, Pennsylvania Dutch furniture, ceramics, hardware and other objects with paintings, would remain unchanged...

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