"Hackers posing as a veteran London art dealer tricked a Dutch museum buying a John Constable painting into paying $3.1 million into a fraudulent bank account."

"Scamming their way into the middle of months of negotiating emails between Simon C. Dickinson Ltd. and Rijksmuseum Twenthe, the imposters persuaded the museum to transfer the funds to a Hong Kong account."

"This case is a classic example of someone who held himself out to be a dealer trying to exploit an artist at the outset of his career. Mr. Fordjour has always acted in good faith with respect to Mr. Blumenthal and fully expects to prevail in this lawsuit."

Dealer Robert Blumenthal is suing artist Derek Fordjour over a deal he claims they made in 2014 to buy 20 paintings for $20,000. Not $20,000 each -- $20,000 in total. He got 13 of them and is suing for the other seven. Eileen Kinsella has the story here.

"While this lawsuit might not be quite as egregiously bad as some of Liebowitz's other lawsuits, it's still pretty bananas."

Mike Masnick: Copyright Troll Lawsuit Over Duct Taped Banana Picture.

Gagosian-Tananbaum Suit Settled

This is the one with the ouroboros, and where the Judge had said: "Next year, Mr. Tananbaum will go buy more art from Mr. Gagosian. I’m the only one getting agita." Which, based on the joint statement issued by Gagosian and Koons ("Mr. Tananbaum is a passionate collector, and we look forward to our continuing relationship"), appears to be correct (though I can't speak to anybody's agita levels but my own). Story here.

"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.

"Marciano Foundation Worker Files Suit Claiming Mass Layoffs Were Illegal"

New York Times story here. Background here.

"Court Orders Art Dealer Asher Edelman’s Company to Pay $1 Million in the Botched Sale of a Keith Haring Painting"

Story here. Decision (on summary judgment) here. After receiving an invoice, Edelman wrote to the seller, "As thirty days from your invoice will pass tomorrow, I need to cancel the transaction because of non-payment to me," but the Court points out in its decision that that's not a thing: "While Edelman's notice of cancelation hints at some legal right to do so … Edelman testified at his deposition that he understood 'there's no specific law' authorizing his cancelation. Rather, it was Edelman's understanding that '[t]radition in the industry' permitted such cancelations."

Inigo Update

Athena Art Finance has joined the fray:  A Prominent Art-Finance Company Says Embattled Dealer Inigo Philbrick Owes It $15 Million for a Loan He Never Paid Back.

Background here. "Philbrick’s whereabouts are currently unknown and his two former gallery spaces, in Miami and London, have been shuttered. His Miami attorney recently filed a motion to withdraw as counsel, writing that the dealer has 'failed to fulfill his obligations.' The UK High Court has granted requests from three separate plaintiffs to freeze Philbrick’s assets."

"UMB Bank has lost Thomas Hart Benton art, mismanaged the artist’s trusts, lawsuit says"

Story here.

The Di Rosa Deaccessioning Is Moving Forward

Charles Desmarais has an update here. Background here.

I'm not sure why, but this one has largely escaped the attention of the Deaccession Police. Maybe people are just tired of this whole debate.

"Looking back over the year, there was one salient feature that should be worrying all those who work in the art market. It is the number of lawsuits—some ongoing, others judged or under appeal—where art dealers appear to have acted fraudulently, mainly by selling works that were not theirs or selling the same work more than once."

Georgina Adam: Dodgy dealers beware: anti-fraud lawsuits are on the rise.

The Top 13 Art Law Disputes of 2019

A good list from Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento.

"The decision, if it is upheld, will have an impact on all legal actions filed by Rybolovlev around the world, as the court of appeal now 'forbids anyone to use the acts which have been declared null and void in this proceeding.'"

"The long-running criminal case between the Russian billionaire collector Dmitry Rybolovlev and the Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, which was filed in 2015, has been dismissed by a court of appeal in Monaco."

"I was so drunk when I wrote this paper. It was one o’clock in the morning and I was three sheets to the wind."

Deaccessioning Hall of Fame Scholar-in-Residence Brian Frye has an (intentionally) bananas argument that certificate-based conceptual art is illegal. Brian Boucher talks to him about it here.