"The heist comes as museums in much of Europe and the United States are closed in attempts to stem the spread of the coronavirus."

The New York Times: Early van Gogh Painting Stolen From Dutch Museum.

"On its face, this dispute centers on a technical legal question about whether a 2014 email from Mr. Fordjour to Mr. Blumenthal that outlined the terms of their arrangement constituted a strict sales contract or a different kind of deal, called a consignment agreement."

The New York Times has a story on the Derek Fordjour lawsuit. Background here.

"In short, under the Second Circuit’s test, a work is of recognized stature when a community of art experts says it is."

Very good piece by MKW's Dave Steiner on the 5Pointz decision. He finds the damages aspect of the case less interesting than I do and says "the primary significance of the case is that it establishes a test that is highly deferential to experts for when a work of visual art has achieved 'recognized stature' — and thus merits protection from destruction under [VARA]." He also offers some lessons for real estate owners, including "don't lie to the court."

Supreme Court Rules States Immune from Copyright Suits

Story here. Opinion here. Analysis here. Angry tweetstorm here.

"The Artist Behind Meow Wolf’s Beloved Fantastical Space Owl Is Suing the Company for More Than $1 Million"

Story here.

Here's some background on Meow Wolf from the New York Times Magazine last year: Can an Art Collective Become the Disney of the Experience Economy? They'd reportedly raised $158 million from investors as of last May.

"It is a classic example of an art dealer acting in bad faith to exploit an artist at the outset of his career. The law protects against that."

Derek Fordjour moves to dismiss dealer Robert Blumenthal's complaint against him. Story here. Background here.

Inigo Inigo Inigo

Some quarantine reading on the art world's biggest legal scandal at the moment:

1. The New York Times: The Talented Mr. Philbrick.

2. artnet news: What Did Inigo Philbrick Do? How One Precocious Dealer Allegedly Swindled the Art Market’s Savviest Players Out of Millions.

3. A first-person account at New York magazine by Philbrick's one-time friend Kenny Schachter. This one features the largest amount of prostitutes and drugs.

"Paddle8 Is Filing for Bankruptcy—and It Owes Tens of Thousands of Dollars to Justin Bieber, Jay Z’s Foundation, and Others"

"The filing comes one week after a nonprofit sued the auction house for allegedly misappropriating funds."

Background here.

5Pointz developer seeking Supreme Court review

Link [$] here.

Annemarie Bridy tweets: "Alleges the damages are so excessive that they violate due process. I think this one's a loser."

Background here. Bridy is probably right, but, as I say at the link, the damages issue is the most interesting part of the case.

"Artist Sues Disney, Pixar Over Unicorn-Adorned Van in 'Onward'"

Story here.

Timothy Geigner at Techdirt says: "Are those two vans similar? Of course they are! So is Disney/Pixar guilty of copyright infringement? Well...no, probably not. This again is a matter of the idea and expression dichotomy in copyright law. The purpose of that part of the law is to limit copyright protection to specific expression and not mere ideas and themes. For instance, a 1 to 1 copy of Daniher's design on Pixar's cartoon van would likely be infringing. The concept of a purple van with a unicorn on the side of it is, however, not protectable. In fact, it's nearly in trope territory."

"Blain Southern goes into administration as artists reveal debts owed by gallery"

Story here. At least one artist is suing: "Sean Scully says he has 'begun legal proceedings' against the firm, which he says owes him a substantial amount of money related to the sales of his works."

"Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara arrested on way to a LGBTQ+ censorship protest"

Art Newspaper story here.

"Mary Boone sued by former director for withholding wages and ‘misappropriating’ more than $10m"

James Oliver claims she sold certain works for her own account that really belonged to the gallery, where he had a 10% equity interest.

Some relevant background here.

"Based on his guilty plea, Righter faces up to 25 years in federal prison."

artnet news: A Los Angeles Man Who Forged Documents to ‘Authenticate’ Fake Works by Warhol and Basquiat Has Pleaded Guilty to Federal Fraud Charges.

Crispin Sartwell tweets: "If I were an art forger, Warhol and Basquiat would be tempting. Not sure anyone could tell the real thing from a careless fake by looking."

Paddle8 Sued for Nonpayment

Eileen Kinsella has the story here.