"Taking Intellectual Property into Their Own Hands"

Fantastic new law review article by Amy Adler and Jeanne Fromer.

Section I.E is particularly incisive.

The Wealth Tax and The Arts

Some thoughts from Tyler Cowen:  Tax the Wealthy and Their Charities Will Suffer.

And some criticisms from Michael Rushton here.

"The Scandal Engulfing Dealer Inigo Philbrick Widens Amid New Accusations That He Duped the Buyer of a $12 Million Basquiat"

Eileen Kinsella has the latest.  Background here.

"Mr. Cattelan said he did not expect to get the toilet back. But the piece exhibited at Blenheim was just one of three he made, so there were two more available, he said."

The case of the stolen gold toilet remains unsolved. The New York Times reports that "the police are still looking for the missing john — an artwork called 'America' by Maurizio Cattelan — but, so far, they remain empty-handed. A spokesman for the force carrying out the investigation, Thames Valley Police, declined to discuss the case, except to confirm that six people had been arrested in connection with the theft, only to be released later without charge."

"A Prominent Chinese-American Artist Is the Latest to Fall Afoul of China’s Censors"

New York Times story here.

"$300 Million Worth of Work by Anselm Kiefer and Other German Artists Has Mysteriously Gone Missing in China"

"According to several German media reports, the works belong to millionaire Maria Chen-Tu, a German collector of Taiwanese heritage, who loaned part of her large collection to the Chinese businessman Ma Yue. His German-based company, Bell Art, was liquidated earlier this year."

"'It is a triumph of truth and marks the end of a cover-up', said Jean-Jacques Neuer, lawyer for Picasso's son Claude Ruiz-Picasso."

AFP:  French court confirms sentence for Picasso's electrician over hoarded art.

Background here.

"I don't know how much clearer I can be about this: we are moving the Bull."

The Art Newspaper: Plans to move lower Manhattan’s Charging Bull sculpture raises furore.

Nicholas O'Donnell says: "If the artist owns the sculpture, he has no ability to dictate its placement on city property. He can ask for it back if he wants but that's it. If he doesn't own it (for which there [is] an anecdotal argument, having abandoned it on Wall Street), he has zero say at all."

"A fast-moving controversy at the Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles that involved workers trying to unionize, layoffs, and the announcement of a temporary closure has come to a dramatic conclusion: the private museum saying that it now has no plans to reopen." (UPDATED)

ARTnews:  After Layoffs and Unionization Campaign, Marciano Art Foundation Says: ‘We Have No Present Plans to Reopen.’

UPDATE: "In a charge filed on Thursday with the National Labor Relations Board, the organizers wrote that the foundation 'has illegally discriminated against its employees by laying off employees en masse and/or closing its facility.'"

"The case, which includes accusations of a fake auction guarantee and double-dealing, lifts the curtain on a segment of the market fueled by increasingly byzantine deals involving anonymous corporations, partial ownership, and fast flipping."

artnet news:  A Bombshell Lawsuit Claims That High-Flying Art Dealer Inigo Philbrick Sold a Rudolf Stingel Painting He Didn’t Own—More Than Once.

"In 2001, Meyer purchased the Rothko for $900,000 from New York dealer Susan Seidel, after another dealer, Jamie Frankfort, introduced them."

LA Times:  Longtime Universal boss Ron Meyer sues art dealer over ‘forged’ Mark Rothko painting.

"Christie’s says the family members have no proof the diamond belongs to them and that, regardless, its client, who bought it from the stepbrother, had every right to sell the stone."

NYT:  Christie’s Auctioned a $40 Million Diamond. Was It Stolen?

"The arrest came after authorities discovered what they said was a fake artwork attributed to an artist who was not named in the Der Tagesspiegel report."

ARTnews:  Noted Berlin Art Dealer Arrested After Allegedly Selling Fake Painting.