Copyright Law

Met-Adams Settlement

Posted on April 20, 2010
The Fresno Bee reports that the lawsuit by Ansel Adams's son against "the former" Fresno Metropolitan Museum has been settled:"The museum will return to [Adams] photographs that were not intended to be sold to private collectors, according to Michael Wilhelm, an attorney representing the museum...

Linkage

Posted on April 19, 2010
The California AG's report on MOCA mismanagement. (Background here.)"We're short of cops to begin with and we don't have enough cops to waste answering calls of statues committing suicide.".Conviction upheld. (Background here.)Is Michelangelo overrated?Tom Flynn on the stolen Rockwell decision...

"Slick, happily one-sided"

Posted on April 19, 2010
Colin Dabkowski of the Buffalo News on "The Art of the Steal": "We don?t get nearly enough face time from those in favor of the move, which seems attributable as much to the filmmaker?s bias as it is to those who refused to be interviewed for the project...

"It was an honest mistake"

Posted on April 19, 2010
Mike Boehm points out that, on the version of the facts accepted by the trial judge, Stephen Spielberg should never have had to give up his "stolen" Rockwell.

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"I?m not sure I ever saw what was so controversial"

Posted on April 19, 2010
Dealer Gavin Brown on the New Museum "controversy": "I don?t see the problem?are people upset about the works in the exhibitions? Do they not want to see that work? The ones who do see a problem are small-minded people keeping score in their small-minded game...

Friede Fight Finally Finished

Posted on April 15, 2010
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that "a deal has been signed ending [the Friede family] inheritance dispute." It sounds like the same "tentative" deal that was announced in December. And it's as confusing as ever. The Chronicle says:"The bottom line for the public is that 29 pieces that had been among the 398 on display at the city-owned de Young museum after being donated by New York philanthropists John and Marcia Friede have been removed for sale...

Fisk News

Posted on April 15, 2010
The AP: "Fisk University has filed a motion seeking a trial date in its quest to sell some of the artwork from its Stieglitz collection."For background, start here.

How Not to Deaccession

Posted on April 15, 2010
The Blanden Memorial Art Museum comes in for some harsh criticism from the AAM for its "Art is for Everyone" sale. Background here and here.

Decision in the Spielberg Stolen Rockwell Case

Posted on April 15, 2010
In a 2008 post on the the battle over a stolen Rockwell painting that got a lot of press because it had ended up in Steven Spielberg's collection, I said I thought "the issue ... is going to be whether Solomon, the theft victim, reasonably should have discovered that the painting had been found back in 1989 (in which case he would lose on statute of limitations grounds)...

Lopsided Leaflet

Posted on April 14, 2010
Jonathan Kiefer on "The Art of the Steal":"[Barnes's] Last Will and Testament specified his axe should be ground against the presumed philistinism of Philadelphia?s power elite in perpetuity. That hasn?t happened, and Barnes? acolytes are pissed, so one of them hired Don Argott to make lopsided leaflet of a documentary about it...

"Gehry said no money was involved in the settlement"

Posted on April 14, 2010
The MIT-Frank Gehry lawsuit has settled. Story here.

Linkage

Posted on April 14, 2010
Salander furniture to be auctioned. "Proceeds will benefit creditors in the bankruptcy."Are museums hampered by copyright laws?Judd Tully on the "recently cast" Degas bronzes. (Mentioned earlier here.)Should all charities be equal?

"Casting this story as a battle between the elites and the philistines mischaracterizes the situation"

Posted on April 12, 2010
Peter Rainer on "The Art of the Steal": "Imagine if there was a collection of works by Shakespeare, or symphonies by Mozart, that could be experienced only in a single location after an interminable wait, if at all? ... By making the art publicly available in the downtown location (which will recreate the way the art was displayed in the foundation), ...

Linkage

Posted on April 12, 2010
Gardner Heist gets a shout-out . . . on "The Simpsons."Happy birthday copyright!Meant to mention this one before the weekend: visual artist class action against Google. "The suit in federal court in New York was filed after a judge in Manhattan last year rejected the artists? request to be part of a proposed $125 million settlement that Google reached with authors in connection with its plan to make digital copies of books in libraries...

Linkage

Posted on April 08, 2010
Seven-year sentence in TV art scam.Berry-Hill artwork seized.Josh Baer reports that Phillips de Pury won a court battle to sell works from Halsey Minor's collection.The Barnes move is a result of "the ever-apparent short gain philosophy revealed in company takeovers and the sub-prime mortgage debacle" or something.

"Estate Tax Law Uncertainty Affecting Donations to Museums"

Posted on April 08, 2010
Daniel Grant at the Huffington Post.Related post here.

"Officials say the museum may have to close in thirty days"

Posted on April 07, 2010
The Owensboro Museum of Fine Arts in Kentucky is on the verge of closing its doors.

Minor News

Posted on April 07, 2010
Lee Rosenbaum has some thoughts on the recent summary judgment decision Sotheby's got against collector Halsey Minor. She also gets this quote from Minor:"I will be appealing. This is not a financial issue. ... It's an issue I feel very strongly about...

"That?s a rate of something over $10 million per year on the initial loan, or 44%"

Posted on April 07, 2010
Felix Salmon says Art Capital made $16 million on its loan to Annie Leibovitz.

Linkage

Posted on April 06, 2010
Shepard Fairey update.Did bureaucratic infighting sabotage the Gardner investigation?Lawsuit over Eames archive.

Linkage

Posted on April 05, 2010
Another Leibovitz loan lawsuit.Park West jury trial underway in federal court in Detroit.Proposed regs governing sales of art in NYC parks.Updates on the Cleveland Museum and Fisk stories.

"But in many cases, experts say, contracts are unspecific and collectors do not fully understand the legal risks"

Posted on April 03, 2010
NYT "Wealth Matters" columnist Paul Sullivan: "Protect Your Art With More Than a Handshake."

"If there is one thing we can be sure of when it comes to fair use [it's] that there is nothing we can be sure of when it comes to fair use"

Posted on April 02, 2010
Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento responds to a just-released study by The Center for Social Media at American University on the impact of copyright and fair use on communication scholars.

Linkage (wow-there's-a-lot-going-on edition)

Posted on April 02, 2010
Pace and Wildenstein have split up. Carol Vogel has the story in the NYT: "Although the financial details are being kept confidential, hundreds of millions of dollars are said to have changed hands. Pace bought out Wildenstein?s portion of the inventory they jointly owned ...

Minor Dismissal

Posted on April 01, 2010
Total victory for Sotheby's in its breach of contract lawsuit against Halsey Minor. Story here. He owes them $4.4 million -- "plus interest, late charges, and legal fees."Minor's claim was that he didn't have to pay because "Sotheby's had significant economic interests in the artworks at issue, which it failed to disclose...

Linkage

Posted on March 30, 2010
Unauthorized readymades?Money trouble at the Detroit Institute of Arts.The fight over Marc Dreier's Warhols.

More Art of the Steal Reax

Posted on March 30, 2010
Heather Hope, who has excellent taste (see last bullet point), says, of The Art of the Steal: "I hated this movie and don?t recommend that anyone see it." Why? Because "it?s completely one-sided," an "ill-conceived gem of propaganda."And Kevin Murphy -- who's a Democratic speechwriter on Capitol Hill -- says the movie "gradually becomes so grossly one-sided in its telling that it skips right over myopic and naive and ends up feeling downright corrupt...

"These paintings are too good to be quarantined at an anachronistic and ineffective institution in Merion"

Posted on March 29, 2010
Artnet's Walter Robinson: Free the Barnes 800.

"Officials of the failed Fresno Metropolitan Museum say they hope to auction off most of their art collections by October"

Posted on March 27, 2010
"Walter's announcement suggests that the Met doesn't anticipate legal challenges to derail its efforts to sell the collection and use the proceeds to pay creditors." This is what happens when we let them fail.

Linkage

Posted on March 26, 2010
Lucky week for recovering stolen art.Top 5 art theft articles.Green Day art infringement suit.

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