Copyright Law

Tell me again about the "public trust" (a continuing series)

Posted on January 16, 2011
The Cleveland Museum of Art is selling "more than two dozen European old master paintings in the largest sell-off from its collection in more than a half-century."Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento predicts that "the anti-deaccessioning police will be all over this," but I tend to doubt it...

"Reading between the lines of the announcement, the settlement appears to be a near-complete win for the AP and its lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis."

Posted on January 14, 2011
More on the AP-Fairey settlement, from the Alison Frankel of The American Lawyer: "Under the terms of the deal, Fairey has agreed not to use another AP photo without obtaining a license, and to share rights with the AP going forward to merchandise bearing the Hope image...

"In return, the city agreed to stand behind the museum?s debt."

Posted on January 12, 2011
The NYT's Kate Taylor reports that the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco "has been saved from likely bankruptcy." The San Francisco Chronicle says the deal "makes the city liable for the museum's nearly $100 million in debt."Should we worry about moral hazard?

"These ludicrous creatures have strong claim to being the most ridiculous asset class in the world, ..."

Posted on January 12, 2011
". . . no one should ever invest in them, and they invariably fail."Felix Salmon is not a fan of art funds.

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"Some critics regard this type of art as purely criminal vandalism."

Posted on January 12, 2011
The LA Times on Taschen's "Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art."

"It was unclear how a dismissal of claims between Fairey and the AP would affect legal fair use arguments"

Posted on January 12, 2011
Breaking news in the Shepard Fairey-AP lawsuit. Hard to tell from the news reports exactly what's going on, but seems that at least some of the claims are being settled.

"In his letter, Mr. Bain argues that Mr. Bronson holds copyright in the work owned by the National Gallery ..."

Posted on January 12, 2011
". . . and, as such, 'has the exclusive right to display the work.'"The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that "Canadian artist AA Bronson has brought a lawyer into his dispute with the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. over the gallery?s refusal to return to Canada one of his works currently in a controversial exhibition there...

Everybody Needs a Hobby

Posted on January 12, 2011
The NYT's Randy Kennedy has a great story today about a guy who's been going around donating fake works to museums:"Unlike most forgers, he does not seem to be in it for the money, but for a kind of satisfaction at seeing his works accepted as authentic...

Tell me again about the "public trust" (a continuing series)

Posted on January 10, 2011
Judith Dobrzynski has news of two more museums selling work, including the planned sale by the Art Institute of Chicago of a Braque, two Picassos, and a Matisse at Christie's next month. The combined high estimates come to about $15.5 million.Here are two things we know about those five works:1...

As if on cue . . .

Posted on January 07, 2011
The Philadelphia Inquirer's Stephan Salisbury reports this morning that the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has sold five works and plans to sell five more.The five already sold are: Autumn Still Life by William Merritt Chase; Looking Over Frenchman's Bay at Green Mountain (1896) by Childe Hassam; Flowers (1893) by John H...

I wonder what a large ad hoc committee would have looked like

Posted on January 06, 2011
Judith Dobrzynski reports that the promised small ad hoc committee of museum leaders has been established by the New York Board of Regents to help it produce an updated set of deaccessioning regulations. There are 16 members.

"It does no good to conserve an individual object if you put it back into the very environment that caused it to deteriorate in the first place."

Posted on January 06, 2011
NPR has a story on the recent deaccessioning at the Philadelphia History Museum. The New York Times ran a similar story last month.I always love this move: "Russell Lewis, chief historian at the Chicago History Museum, says his institution tries to avoid deaccessioning because of the message it can send to potential donors...

"Except for the super wealthy, the tax benefits of giving through an estate plan have been wiped out."

Posted on January 04, 2011
Forbes: New Estate Tax Law Could Hurt Charity. (For more on the new estate tax law, see here.)

Linkage

Posted on January 04, 2011
Chris Marinello on who buys stolen art.Interview with art title insurer ARIS.Law School for Visual Artists.

"The group is hanging its admittedly slim hopes on a court challenge that West Chester Attorney Samuel Stretton said he would file within a week."

Posted on January 03, 2011
The Friends of the Barnes fight on:"Stretton said he will ask that the original case be reopened, arguing that then-State Attorney General and now-Federal Judge Michael Fisher was too supportive of the coalition of individuals and groups that pressed for the Barnes to be moved to Philadelphia...

Estate Tax Changes

Posted on January 03, 2011
Welcome back, and Happy New Year everybody! To kick things off, I thought I'd share an advisory we sent to our clients regarding the tax legislation passed by Congress just before the holidays:The just-enacted Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the ?Act?) favorably addresses uncertainties lingering in our federal estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax regimes since 2001...

"The film is essentially a vigorous defense of private property rights against Philadelphia?s government."

Posted on December 29, 2010
"Argott has unwittingly made a libertarian documentary."

"Despite several weeks of accusations, counterclaims and deepening investigations . . ."

Posted on December 25, 2010
". . . the mystery at the core of the case of Picasso and the electrician seems no closer to being solved."

"Police said the burglars must have known they?d be on film because they also stole a video recorder attached to surveillance cameras."

Posted on December 24, 2010
Major art theft from a West Village apartment.

"A motion to dismiss should be denied if it is properly pled that these aren't Ansel Adams negatives . . ."

Posted on December 24, 2010
". . . But that's the only issue, and the fact that the case law apparently led the court to think that anything else mattered is evidence that our trademark and right of publicity doctrines have lost all connection to common sense."Rebecca Tushnet on the recent district court decision in the Ansel Adams case.

Better to poach the non-malicious clients

Posted on December 24, 2010
Art dealer Edward Tyler Nahem is suing ex-gallery director Lance Goldsmith, "alleging the former staffer stole trade secrets and mailing lists and conducted 'malicious' client poaching." Lindsay Pollock has the details.

$1.4 million

Posted on December 24, 2010
That's how much the University of Alabama says it has spent so far in its lawsuit against artist Daniel Moore.

Madrid Theft Update

Posted on December 24, 2010
ARCA has an exclusive. (Background here.)

"Among those extended provisions are several incentives for charitable giving"

Posted on December 21, 2010
The Nonprofit Lawprof Blog has the details.

A Smithsonian Footnote (UPDATED)

Posted on December 20, 2010
I haven't written about the Smithsonian controversy because it isn't really a legal dispute, but here's a small legal angle: last week artist AA Bronson asked the museum to remove his work from the show in protest. They refused. Today he follows up with an email saying:"My lawyer suggests that, according to my moral rights under copyright law in both Canada and the U...

Prepare the fainting couches

Posted on December 17, 2010
A museum is doing a show of work belonging to one of its trustees.

"Now Mr. Norsigian argues in his countersuit that the trust slandered him and engaged in a civil conspiracy."

Posted on December 17, 2010
The latest in the Ansel Adams litigation.

"Details of the proposed settlement are sketchy."

Posted on December 16, 2010
Artist David Ascalon's VARA suit appears to have settled.

Further Frazetta Fighting

Posted on December 16, 2010
"Frank Frazetta Jr.'s action, filed against his three siblings Wednesday in Fort Myers, is just the latest legal blow landed in a dispute that once saw him use a back hoe to break into his father's museum in northeastern Pennsylvania and attempt to steal 90 paintings...

Linkage (falling way behind edition)

Posted on December 14, 2010
Controversy over removed mural.Motion to dismiss denied in Ansel Adams case.Held in the public trust.

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