Copyright Law

What's the AAMD position on deaccessioning to resolve a lawsuit?

Posted on April 23, 2009
The San Francisco Chronicle has the latest on the complicated Friede family lawsuits. Among other things, "[de Young] museum officials and [John] Friede agreed in March to auction off 76 items like masks, headrests and mortars. They expect to raise about $3...

Reijtenbagh Race

Posted on April 23, 2009
Reuters reports that a second lawsuit has been filed involving Dutch businessman Louis Reijtenbagh's art collection -- this one in Amsterdam, by ABN AMRO: "[A] source, who is familiar with the Dutch bank's lawsuit ..., said it was triggered by another court case in New York lodged by JPMorgan Chase & Co ...

"A museum dedicated to the artist Henry Varnum Poor won?t open here for years, but already its collection is shrinking"

Posted on April 23, 2009
Eve Kahn has the story in today's New York Times. Apparently, the town of Ramapo, N.Y. paid $1.3 million ("including $500,000 from the state") to buy Poor's home in a neighboring town a couple of years ago. (Poor died in 1970.) But it seems Poor's son, Peter, who is in his 80s, "still owns the contents of [the house], and he has begun selling major pieces or donating them to museums...

Some Data

Posted on April 23, 2009
As a follow up to their interview with the Art Loss Register's Chris Marinello, the Art Market Monitor offers "a little bonus data," including the top ten stolen artists in the ALR database. No suprise that Picasso is way out in front. Dali is second, Miro third.

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"The pie is shrinking"

Posted on April 23, 2009
The Wall Street Journal has a story today on the search by "financially strapped" colleges for ways to find "the cash for urgent needs in a deep recession." It says "colleges posted average investment losses of 23% from July 1 to Nov. 30, and markets have fallen more since...

Does eBay reduce looting? (UPDATED)

Posted on April 23, 2009
Derek Fincham points to an article in Archaeology magazine arguing that, contrary to what we might have expected, the rise of eBay has actually reduced antiquities looting. Economist Tyler Cowen summarizes: "Supply is so elastic, and so many fakes are made, that looting is less worthwhile than it used to be...

"There is a good deal of non-malevolent wishful thinking on the part of members of the art world"

Posted on April 23, 2009
Inspired by the news that Italy paid $4.2 million last year to buy a small wooden crucifix that may (or may not be) by Michelangelo, ARCA's Noah Charney offers some thoughts on the value of art: "When it comes down to it, the value of works of art is a combination of authenticity, demand, and rarity?but the key to all components is that value equals perceived authenticity, plus perceived demand, plus perceived rarity...

"Let's move on from quibbling and have a substantive discussion about the opinions I expressed and the issues I raised"

Posted on April 22, 2009
James Panero responds to Christopher Knight's response to his Wall Street Journal piece on the Montclair Art Museum deaccessioning: "In fact, the only 'hit job' is the one Knight decided to take out on me."He offers a summary of the "key points" of his argument, including: (1) "The Montclair art museum is engaging in a deaccessioning campaign"; (2) "this campaign is being done (in whole on in part?the ethics of the case are still the same) in order to back the museum's bonds"; and (3) "this raises a greater question--if museums are forbidden from collateralizing their bonds with the art on their walls, is it appropriate that they should be able to sell the art and use the proceeds to back their bonds?"That seems to me to be a fair, not at all malodorous question.

More on Montclair

Posted on April 21, 2009
On the subject of olfactory testing, let me just add that I always found Carol Vogel's initial story on the Montclair deaccessioning a little odd. It began:"Like most museums around the country, the Montclair Art Museum ... is grappling with a dwindling endowment (a 25 percent decline since July) and rising operating costs...

"[A] greedy individual, with the advantage of a legal education and a claimed litigation experience, has initiated and maintained this lawsuit"

Posted on April 21, 2009
The LegalTimes blog reports that the D.C. Circuit has upheld a district court ruling that "[a]n art dealer ... must pay more than $630,000 in attorney fees and expenses to Christie?s for a suit [the district court] judge said only served to harrass the auction house after it refused to sell a painting...

Charitable Deductions Update

Posted on April 20, 2009
The New York Times: "President Obama is running into stiff Congressional resistance to his plans to raise money for his ambitious agenda .... The administration?s central revenue proposal ? limiting the value of affluent Americans? itemized deductions, including the one for charitable giving ? fell flat in Congress ...

"More than ever, it is vital to understand the value of art, but the quest to ascertain value is a complex endeavor"

Posted on April 20, 2009
Beverly Schreiber Jacoby on art valuation in the NYLJ [$].

Another Park West Lawsuit (A Continuing Series)

Posted on April 20, 2009
This one a class action in Federal District Court in Detroit.The Detroit News has the story.For previous installments, start here.

"It's the essay that doesn't pass the smell test"

Posted on April 18, 2009
My friend Christopher Knight says James Panero's Wall Street Journal story earlier this week on the Montclair Art Museum deaccessioning is "at best misleading and, at worst, a clumsy hit job."

Rose to Stay Open (For Now)

Posted on April 17, 2009
The NYT's Randy Kennedy reports that Brandeis has announced it "will allow its Rose Art Museum to remain open while its fate is being decided": "The decision was seen as a minor victory by opponents of the university?s plans, because it means the Rose will continue, for the time being, to remain subject to the laws and ethical codes that govern public museums and that place restrictions on the sale of works...

Who's more unclean? (UPDATED)

Posted on April 16, 2009
Speaking of Shepard Fairey, he filed his answer to the AP's counterclaims this week. You can read it here. No real surprises. Probably the most interesting thing is a section (the "Fourth Defense," beginning on p. 21) arguing that the AP's claims "are barred ...

"In the case of graffiti, the ICA gave Shepard many sanctioned places in which to do outdoor work, so he didn't need to deface public property"

Posted on April 16, 2009
Richard Lacayo has a little Q&A up with Jill Medvedow, the director of Boston's Institute of Contemporary Arts, which currently is hosting a Shepard Fairey show. Naturally some legal issues come up. She says Fairey's arrest on the night of the opening "was a highly choreographed event for maximum drama" -- "Shepard could have been easily found by the police before that night...

Further Fairey

Posted on April 15, 2009
10 new felony vandalism counts in Boston for Shepard Fairey. The AP says that "if convicted, Fairey faces up to three years in state prison."

"A load of hooey"

Posted on April 15, 2009
Noah Charney reviews The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection: "While the account of the [1911] theft and recovery of the Mona Lisa is accurate and reasonably well-written, the supposed true crime conspiracy that the authors have uncovered and present in their work ...

Less Lex Situs

Posted on April 15, 2009
Derek Fincham: How Adopting the Lex Originis Rule Can Impede the Flow of Illicit Cultural Property (32 Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts 111).

"The AAMD sees no problem with the way we are handling this situation"

Posted on April 15, 2009
A number of people emailed me today about this story by James Panero in today's Wall Street Journal. It seems there is more to the Montclair Art Museum deaccessioning than was originally reported.ArtsJournal linked to the story using the following headline: "Via AAMD Loophole, Another Museum Monetizes Collection...

"The German government stands by its historical and moral responsibility"

Posted on April 13, 2009
Germany has rejected Sir Norman Rosenthal's call for an end to Nazi restitution cases.

"I could be a really bad photographer, but in that case why did you use 30 of my pictures?"

Posted on April 13, 2009
While I was defending the honor of Art in America's new editorial team last week, The Art Newspaper had a report on the status of the Richard Prince copyright lawsuit. Prince and Gagosian have answered Cariou's complaint, and now it's on to discovery...

Hot Pursuit

Posted on April 11, 2009
One thing I did not mention in my reply to Christopher Knight's response to my Art in America piece was his reference, in an effort to show the shortcomings of my position, to the idea of a museum using sales proceeds to pay for "a boffo night out with your chums on the board...

Sustainability

Posted on April 09, 2009
For those looking for a "sustained argument" for loosening the rules against deaccessioning, let me recommend Chapter 3 of economist Bruno Frey's Arts & Economics. The chapter is titled "For Art's Sake - Open Up the Vaults," and it begins:"Museums keep a substantial share of their holdings hidden in storage rooms...

Imperious Waving (UPDATED)

Posted on April 08, 2009
George Wallace notices a distinct lack of engagement with the actual issues in Christopher Knight's response to my Art in America piece yesterday:"Christopher Knight's art writing belongs on the very short list of things that the much-abused Los Angeles Times still has left to be proud of these days...

Dark Knight

Posted on April 07, 2009
LA Times art critic Christopher Knight was not impressed with my Art in America piece on deaccessioning. He responds here. The strange thing is that his ultimate conclusions -- that "when such sales inevitably happen, they need to be done with forethought and care" and "the American public trusts their tax-subsidized museum professionals to use their art collections wisely and for their benefit" -- don't seem that different from my own...

"Most art theft isn't committed by discriminating Pierce Brosnan types with a deep appreciation for Claude Monet or René Magritte"

Posted on April 06, 2009
The Broward-Palm Beach New Times has a lengthy story on the art theft mentioned here: The Trail From a $6 Million French Art Heist Ends in Suburban South Florida.

Lawsuit over art-backed loans

Posted on April 06, 2009
Reuters: "JPMorgan ... has sued Dutch businessman Louis Reijtenbagh [in State Supreme Court in Manhattan], saying he failed to pay back more than $23 million in loans and that he unlawfully moved valuable artwork by Rembrandt, Picasso and other artists out of the United States that had been put up as collateral...

Satellite Salander Suit

Posted on April 03, 2009
Josh Baer:"Joseph Carroll Ltd is suing Craig Baker alleging that Baker?s claims to ownership/title of a 1943 John Graham painting that Carroll bought ... from the Salander O?Reilly Gallery ... have blocked his ability to sell the work. According to the papers filed, the work was on consignment to Salander from Baker who missed the deadline to file a claim in bankruptcy court...

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