"How the Legal System Left Artist Purvis Young’s Beneficiaries Empty-Handed"

Story here. Some background here.

Muddier

Portland Press Herald: "Evidence of deleted emails muddies fight over Robert Indiana’s estate."

Previous mud-level status reports here and here.

"The UK artist Bruce Munro, best known for his immersive, light-based installations, is suing the Florida-based Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens for copyright infringement."

Story, and side-by-side images, here.

"Caught smuggling Picasso on his yacht, Spanish billionaire collector gets €52m fine and 18 months in prison"

"According to Spain’s strict heritage laws, permits are required for exporting items more than 100 years old, which can be classified as 'national treasures.'"  They're serious about the public trust over there.

"According to the gallery director Karen Marks, a lawsuit about Maier’s estate has been settled, and the photographs are back on the market, with a commission from each sale going into an escrow account managed by Cook County, Ill."

A bit of art law news buried in a piece on the current Outsider Art Fair. Background here.

Shed employees move to unionize

Story here. More here: "Over the past year, a wave of employees at museums across America have pushed to unionize. Much of the action has been centered on New York, with workers at the New Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and elsewhere having successfully formed unions, though the movement has also begun reaching other cities. Employees at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle unionized, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles voluntarily recognized its workers’ efforts to form a union."

"Under the rules, they have to register with the government’s tax agency, and dealers and auctioneers must establish the identity of the 'ultimate beneficial owner' — meaning both seller and buyer — before entering into a transaction."

New anti-money laundering regulations in the UK. They went into effect Friday. NYT story here. Kenneth Mullens of Withers here. More here.