"However, there may be a different group of artists who deserve their own separate pantheon—those who have made judicial, rather than art, history—for expanding artistic freedom and enabling other artists to create work without fear of prosecution."

Daniel Grant in The Observer:  Freedom of Expression? Fair Use? Thank These Artists You’ve Probably Never Heard Of.

Artist Pension Trust News

It's merging with MutualArt.com.  The Art Market Monitor calls it "one of the more curious announcements in the art world" and says:

"What the combined companies can do together that they could not do apart is not readily apparent. Nor is there an obvious business model for either company as a separate entity or combined."

Background on Artist Pension Trust here.

Tyler Cowen on How Trump Should Support the Arts

The ground rules:  "I applied several standards to my recommendations. First, they must save the federal government money, to appeal to the Republican Congress. Second, they should stand a chance of appealing to Trump, given his stances on other issues. Third, they should offer a reasonable chance of improving the quality of the arts in the U.S., and fourth, the arts community should not hate every aspect of the changes."

The recommendations:

1.  End the transfer of 40% of the NEA budget to state arts councils; and
2.  Restore NEA funding for individual artists.

I stole that pithy summary from Michael Rushton, who adds:  "The two recommendations are driven by a common goal: help fund more interesting, innovative art. Transfers to state arts councils don’t do much for that goal, since they are driven by local politics and the need to serve constituencies on building projects and established arts organizations. Even at the federal level, grants to composers and artists have a chance of doing more to generate interesting art than traditional grants to orchestras and museums."  (His conclusion:  "Of Cowen’s recommendations, I am solidly behind (2), on the fence on (1). But at least he is trying to suggest an end for arts policy, which in turn suggests ways of criticizing alternative means to those ends and suggesting better ones. More like this, please.")

Jamie Martin to Sotheby's

"The scientist James Martin — who for 20 years conducted art fraud investigations for the F.B.I. and played a central role in significant forgery investigations — will join Sotheby’s this week after the acquisition of his firm, Orion Analytical."

"Lowe proclaims that his workshop seeks to 'redefine the relationship between the original and the copy.'"

There was a really interesting piece in last week's New Yorker on "The Factory of Fakes" -- Adam Lowe's 3D reproduction project, Factum.  A taste:

"Factum made its reputation in 2007, with a replica of Paolo Veronese’s monumental painting 'The Wedding at Cana,' which Napoleon presented to a new museum, the Louvre, after ripping it off the wall of a refectory in Venice in 1797. The painting’s place in the refectory, which was designed by Palladio, had never been filled; Lowe installed his copy in the exact spot. Factum’s noninvasive protocol, in which their scanner’s lasers captured every whorled brushstroke without touching the canvas, was in stark contrast to the Louvre’s restoration of the painting, in the nineteen-nineties, during which it accidentally fell onto some scaffolding and was gored in five places. ... When Italians witnessed the unveiling of the Veronese replica, in the creamily lit space where the artist intended his masterpiece to be seen, many of them wept. Bruno Latour, the French theorist, championed the 'Cana' project, and he and Lowe later wrote an essay about it, in which they referred to a 'migration of the aura' from original to copy."

"The experts, as it turned out, were just as bad as the students at spotting the fakes and in fact were *more likely* to say that the genuine MoMA works were fake than they were to call out the fakes."

New York Magazine:  It Is Pretty Easy to Get Art Experts to Fall for Fakes.

Noah Charney would love to be a forgery collector

He explains here:  "Stripped of the fraud component, what you have is an extremely skillfully executed painting, beautiful and with a heck of an interesting story behind it. It becomes a relic of the story in which it featured, but it can also be admired for its aesthetic value."

Getty Images won the (billion dollar) lawsuit brought against it by Carol Highsmith

Story here.  Background here.

"The good news is that after a years-long battle and a lot of legal costs, she finally won."

Daniel Grant looks back at the Crile decision:  "Are You Really an Artist? It’s the IRS Who Actually Decides."

"Christie’s, Sotheby’s and eBay are now demanding to have their legal bills repaid ..."

". . . after twice beating class action litigation aimed at forcing them to pay royalties to artists under California’s art resale law."

Background here.

"'Sotheby’s was not involved with Bouvier’s resale of the Salvator Mundi to Rybolovlev and it derived no financial benefit whatsoever from the sale,' the complaint states." (UPDATED 2X)

A preemptive strike by Sotheby's relating to the Rybolovlev-Bouvier battle.

UPDATE:  More from the Times.

UPDATE 2:  More from Bloomberg.

Fixation

ARTnews has an interesting series of contributions on the question how to fix the art world (part 1, part 2).  Some of the responses touch on art law issues, including these suggestions from Christy MacLear of the Rauschenberg Foundation:

"Copyright:

"Set them free. Images for scholars, teachers, museums, and stewards. Images to be reused creatively by other artists. Even fair use comes with fear and some still seek a free pass or approval. Stop asking—start using—go forth and flourish. Share smartly and avoid a fear of legal retribution; we all trust you. Use art to teach and share knowledge or inspiration. We love more people loving art.

"Deductibility:

"Gifts of art to charities propel our culture but inure no direct benefit to the artist. ... An artist’s contribution to society must be recognized for more than simply the value of raw materials. Art must be valued as a donation equally for the creator as it is for the collector. Wealth and tax equality for all."

Christie’s Ned Schefer has excellent taste in online reading material

As evidenced here.

"The hits keep coming, but Prince doesn't seem to care."

artnet's Eileen Kinsella has a report on the latest Richard Prince lawsuit (including a quote from my post yesterday).

VAT insanity

Norway edition.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Another lawsuit against Richard Prince.

Here is a previous example.  And another.  And another.  I'm probably missing some.

This is why I called the Second Circuit's Prince-Cariou decision a "missed opportunity."  Nobody has any idea what's fair use and what's not in the fine art context.  Prince-Cariou could have helped clear that up; instead, it made things worse.

The jig is up, the news is out

I'm honored to be included on this list of art law renegades from Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento.

"Stripping Is Not Performance Art, Nor Tax Free"

Says New York's Appellate Division.

Motion to Dismiss Denied in the Jeff Koons Gazing Ball Lawsuit (UPDATED)

Dan Duray has the story here.  Background here.  More after I've had a chance to read the decision.

UPDATE:  "The case is a reminder that big ticket transactions in the art world, which can be tricky affairs even when dealing with unique works, are more convoluted when involving editions or multiples to be manufactured by an artist."

Picasso electrician update

"He now claims that the works were given to him in a rubbish bag by Jacqueline, after the artist’s death."

Background here.