Copyright Law

"We are all reviewing what we are doing and asking are we doing enough"

Posted on June 16, 2009
More from the Washington Post on museum security in the aftermath of the killing of a security guard at the Holocaust Museum last week.Related post here.

"Frequently these things are less than black and white"

Posted on June 16, 2009
A lot of people seem very bothered by the news that the Orange County Museum of Art recently sold a group of 18 paintings. This time the trouble is not that the sales proceeds are to be used for something other than acquiring more art; rather, it's that the works were sold "to an undisclosed private collector," instead of at auction...

"Once it's accessioned into the collection, it cannot be deaccessioned unless it does not fit the museum's defined mission"

Posted on June 16, 2009
Art in America's Stephanie Cash interviews NY Assemblyman Richard Brodsky about the Brodsky Bill.

"Well, perhaps no retirement account, but at least the faculty and staff will have an art collection!"

Posted on June 12, 2009
The Deaccessioning Blog listens to a podcast interview with Jonathan Lee, chair of The Rose Art Museum's Board of Directors, and says:"When asked if there are any situations in which selling of artworks by a museum are warranted, Lee retreats into a familiar emotional response lacking any substantive rationale...

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Security

Posted on June 11, 2009
Ulrich Boser on the Holocaust Museum shooting and museum security: "Museums are, after all, museums. They suffer from a Catch 22. On one side, they have to show their treasures. On the other side, they have to protect them. ... Keep in mind that a museum can't pat down people before they come inside...

"The Childe Hassam transaction is the top count in the indictment"

Posted on June 10, 2009
The latest on the Brooke Astor trial, from the New York Times.

"What I created was clearly a presidential poster?new colors, new slogan, totally stylized and idealized, and it doesn?t compete with the original"

Posted on June 10, 2009
An interview with Shepard Fairey.

More Opportunity Cost

Posted on June 09, 2009
The LAT's David Ng: "Eight museum exhibitions you won't be seeing in L.A. anytime soon."Related post here.

In Contempt

Posted on June 09, 2009
From Courthouse News Service: "The 5th Circuit upheld a civil contempt order against an attorney who helped his client evade an asset freeze by selling a Picasso painting for $431,161."

Sketchbook Stolen

Posted on June 09, 2009
From BBC News: "A sketchbook of 33 drawings by Pablo Picasso worth about [$11m] has been stolen from a museum in Paris, police have said. The theft from the Picasso Museum was discovered on Tuesday afternoon but the exact time and circumstances have yet to be determined...

"We can't save all our treasures"

Posted on June 08, 2009
Harry Themal -- Delaware News Journal columnist since 1959 -- started out to write "a column deploring the decision by the Wilmington Library to deaccession ... its marvelous portfolio of 14 N. C. Wyeth paintings for 'Robinson Crusoe' and its 20 volumes of Edward Curtis photographs...

"Taking photographs of objects or people in plain view is not a crime"

Posted on June 08, 2009
From seattlepi.com:"The City of Snohomish has settled with a University of Washington fine art professor arrested shortly after she was seen photographing power lines, the ACLU reports. According to a statement from the [ACLU], Shirley Scheier was driving home in October 2005 when Snohomish police stopped her car on state Route 9 and began questioning her about her 'suspicious' photography...

A different kind of "fake"

Posted on June 08, 2009
From the New York Times: "A former payroll manager for the Brooklyn Museum stole more than $620,000 from the institution by issuing fake paychecks that were directly deposited into his bank account, according to court papers made public on Thursday. The former employee, Dwight Newton, 40, faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud if convicted...

Biscuitless

Posted on June 05, 2009
The Deaccessioning Blog notes "at least three other reasons why anti-deaccessionists are wrong."Relatedly, The Art Newspaper has "identified over 20 important shows that have been axed (or, in a few cases, postponed) later this year or in 2010," which, they add, "almost certainly represents the tip of the iceberg...

More on the Wildflower Suit

Posted on June 05, 2009
The Art Newspaper's Martha Lufkin on Chapman Kelley's 7th Circuit VARA appeal, discussed here last month.

Know when to fold 'em

Posted on June 05, 2009
There've been some developments in Gregory Callimanopulos's suit against Christie?s over the reopening of the bidding for a Sam Francis painting last month. I discussed the suit here.On May 15, the court granted a TRO preventing Christie's from going ahead with the sale to the ultimate buyer (Eli Broad)...

"If deaccessioning does occur, let's hope that we do not have to follow the well-meaning but problematic practices of A6959"

Posted on June 05, 2009
Peter Hirtle has the latest on the Brodsky Bill:"The good news: I assume in reaction to the concern expressed by museums, zoos, and libraries, the bill governing deaccessioning from museums was pulled from the Ways and Means committee's calendar on Tuesday...

"What does the bar owner owe the artist?"

Posted on June 05, 2009
I'm quoted in this story by Jen Graves in The Stranger posing the above question.

"We are united in our belief that the public interest will be best served if the proposed measure is tabled at this time"

Posted on June 04, 2009
A group of nonprofits -- including MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, and the Met -- urge Assemblyman Brodsky to slow down. You can read their (brief) letter here (courtesy of The Deaccessioning Blog).

"Too Important to Decide Immediately"

Posted on June 03, 2009
Ed Winkleman "want[s] to know ... where [Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor] comes down on issues of free speech and in particular where that meets art." He discusses one case, "involv[ing] a sex offender on parole who was found with porn (a violation of his parole terms)...

ALR on a roll

Posted on June 03, 2009
Last week it was some Egyptian artifacts. Now, "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today seized a Pompeii wall panel fresco from a Manhattan auction house that was reported stolen in Italy 12 years ago. The fresco panel, which was the subject of an international search by INTERPOL, was located by the Art Loss Register of New York and brought to the attention of ICE and Italian Authorities...

"Many art theft cases take years, decades, even more than a century, to crack"

Posted on June 03, 2009
Ulrich Boser, author of a recent book on the Gardner theft, has a good piece in U.S. News on art crime more generally. It focuses mainly on the FBI's art theft team, but William Kingsland, Melvyn Kohn, and Dr. No all make appearances.

"This lack of transparency translates into the potential for illegal transactions"

Posted on June 03, 2009
The ARCAblog is running a series of papers by students in Noah Charney's art crime class at Yale. Here's Elizabeth Sebesky, on How Lending Fuels Art Crime.

"Wark said prosecutors are still going forward with the other charges"

Posted on June 03, 2009
Boston prosecutors have dropped 13 (or 14, depending on who you ask) vandalism charges against Shepard Fairey. Story here. "Prosecutors said Fairey still faces charges for 13 similar offenses, 10 in Boston Municipal Court?s Central Division and another three in the Brighton Division...

"While ostensibly about museums, the law could have a major impact on how libraries function"

Posted on June 01, 2009
Cornell's Peter Hirtle is concerned with the potential impact of the Brodsky bill on libraries and archives:"The problem is that while the bill discusses the issue surrounding collecting in museums, it defines museums so broadly that most libraries and archives would fall under its sway...

Second Try

Posted on June 01, 2009
From the LA Times Culture Monster blog: "Frank Romero, a noted muralist and pioneering Chicano painter, is suing Caltrans for painting over a mural he created along the Hollywood Freeway downtown in conjunction with the 1984 Olympics. ... Romero's suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, contends that sometime after June 1, 2007, a Caltrans work crew painted over his 102-foot-long, 20-foot-high mural, 'Going to the Olympics,' erasing it from a wall at Alameda Street...

Kokoschka Decision

Posted on June 01, 2009
The New York Times: "A Massachusetts judge has ruled that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is the rightful owner of a 1913 Oskar Kokoschka painting being sought by a woman who said it was sold under duress during the Nazi occupation of Austria. In 2008 the museum filed suit to assert its ownership rights to the painting ...

More on the Warhol Decision

Posted on June 01, 2009
Rebecca Tushnet has a good summary of the Warhol/Simon-Whelan decision mentioned here last week. More here from the Class Action Defense Blog. You can read the decision here.

Egyptian Artifacts Recovered

Posted on June 01, 2009
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recovered seven artifacts of Egyptian origin that were found at a Manhattan auction house. The ... items were stolen from the Bijbels Museum in Amsterdam on July 29, 2007 in the middle of the afternoon. ... The investigation received significant help from the Art Loss Register (ALR) of New York, an organization that maintains a database of stolen works of art...

Crunch

Posted on June 01, 2009
Richard Lacayo has a good piece in the current Time on how the recession is affecting museums and other arts organizations. The whole thing is worth reading, but some highlights:"Endowments have shrunk everywhere, and sizable budget cuts have been the rule at museums in Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Diego...

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