Another Mr. Brainwash Suit

Story here.  He didn't fare so well in the previous one.

The discussions here and here are worth looking at again too.

"No one has ever been arrested in the case."

"Two paintings that resurfaced 31 years after being stolen during a violent home invasion in Massachusetts will be auctioned in New York City next month."

Background here.

"During the photographers’ move of the Nok figure, the Nok figure fell onto the floor and was smashed into a myriad of pieces"

"During a shoot, magazine photographers dropped a 2,600-year-old terracotta statue, smashing the $300,000 piece of Nigerian Nok art for good, according to the collector Corice Arman, who is suing Louise Blouin Media in a New York court ...."

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

MoMA is selling a Hans Hofmann, "a classic New York School piece from 1958."

Somehow they can do this even though, once an object falls under the aegis of a museum, it is held in the public trust, to be accessible to present and future generations.  Maybe this work was not held in the public trust.  That must be it.

"At Kennedy Airport, an Artist Fights to Save Her Sculpture"

New York Times story here.

Fisk Finale

The Tennessee Supreme Court has denied the Attorney General's request for permission to appeal the latest Court of Appeals ruling in the Fisk litigation.  I'm not surprised.  News story here.  Fisk says "this puts an end to the multi-year legal controversy about whether or not Fisk has the right to share the Stieglitz Collection with Crystal Bridges."   The Collection will now disappear into the private home of an anonymous Russian oligarch, never to be seen ... sorry, check that.  My bad.  Under the agreement, "the Collection will be exhibited one-half the time at Fisk and one-half of the time at Crystal Bridges. The agreement ensures that each Fisk student will have an opportunity to study and view the art over the course of his or her matriculation at the University and that the entire Collection will be available for the public to view and enjoy during these periods."  The horror.

"Solomon does not offer any credible argument undermining the district court's finding that he had constructive notice of the sale."

A couple of years ago, I wrote a column in the Journal of Art Crime on a lawsuit involving a stolen Norman Rockwell painting that found its way into Steven Spielberg's collection.  The plaintiff in the case, the original theft victim, lost on statute of limitations grounds because he should have discovered (and, in fact, may actually have discovered) that the painting was found all the way back in 1989.  The Ninth Circuit has now affirmed.

Do Italian museums hold their work in the public trust?

Because the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum is burning work (to protest budget cuts).

"The discussion is very similar to the one that has taken place in the United States with respect to President Obama's proposed limitations on the charitable contributions deduction"

The Nonprofit Law Prof Blog on "the tax relief policy announced last month in U.K. that would limit a taxpayer's donations to £50,000 or a quarter of their income, whichever is larger."

"What authority does an artist have over his or her artwork after it leaves the studio?"

Julia Halperin on dealer Marc Jancou's lawsuit against Cady Noland and Sotheby's.

"The heist ... was said to be the largest art theft in Swiss history."

A $110 million Cézanne has been recovered in Serbia.

Studio 360 on Prince-Cariou

Listen here.

"She was, and is, according to her lawyer, 'an honest broker.'"

Daniel Grant:  The Knoedler-Rosales Case: A Dealer's Defense.

"In reality, however, Sobel’s prints have probably gone up in value, not down, as a result of Eggleston’s splashy reintroduction to the contemporary art market."

Felix Salmon on the Eggleston lawsuit:  "At first glance this looks like what it is: one of the silliest lawsuits the art world has seen in a very long time. In order to win, Sobel will need to demonstrate two things, neither of which is true. Firstly, he’ll have to show that the value of his vintage Eggleston prints has been diminished as a result of Eggleston making a new series of much larger digital prints. And secondly, he’ll have to show that Eggleston had no right to make the new prints."

Background here.

"New York collector Jonathan Sobel filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Mr. Eggleston ..."

"... alleging that the artist's recent decision to print and sell oversized versions of some of his famous images in a Christie's auction has diluted the rarity—and therefore the resale value—of the originals."

Kelly Crow has the story in the Wall Street Journal.

Charlotte Burns had a story on the issue in the most recent Art Newspaper.  I'm quoted in that one, wondering about how you prove damages in a case like this.

Art dealer charged with selling phony Picassos

Story here.

Line of the Day

Roberta Smith (in her response to Morley Safer's "60 Minutes" piece on contemporary art):  "These days the art world blogosphere produces so much of its own smug, semi-informed, provincial snark that it is hard for Mr. Safer’s to stand out."

"When Stealing Isn't Stealing"

Rutgers lawprof Stuart Green had an op-ed in the Times last week on the difference between theft and copying.  Kal Raustiala and Chris Sprigman second the motion:  "the 'piracy' of intellectual property is simply not the same sort of zero-sum game that car theft — or theft of any tangible property — is."  We discussed the difference between a copyright and a wallet about a year ago here.

"Leaving stolen artworks to the next generation is a losing proposition."

Four paintings that were stolen from a Madison Avenue gallery in 1988 have been recovered.