"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.

"French law forbids national museums from selling anything in their collections, unlike many museums in the United States, which can de-accession works."

Did American museums' promiscuous deaccessioning practices contribute to the decision by Spencer and Marlene Hays to leave their incredible collection to France?

Maybe some day American museums will understand that they hold their works in the public trust, to be accessible to present and future generations, and they shouldn't be sold off in the normal course.

"In the art market, repeat sales account for a fairly small fraction of total sales. ... Thus, any art index based on repeat sales—such as the Mei-Moses index—is unlikely to be considered representative of any market segment."

Sotheby's has bought the Mei Moses art index, for an undisclosed price.  I'm with Columbia Business School's Arturo Cifuentes, quoted in the header above.  As Felix Salmon put it several years ago, the index is "a creature of massive survivorship bias. The Mei Moses index looks at auction pairs: works of art which have been sold at auction twice. This method gives a very good idea of what has happened to the value of any given work of art over time, but it’s a very bad way of determining what has happened to the art market as a whole, since the kind of works which get auctioned multiple times are decidedly not representative of the broader art world."

"The score was settled thanks to outraged posts on social media."

artnet:  Vivienne Westwood Accused of Plagiarizing Artist’s Design.

Given what's in the story, I don't think the "accused of" is necessary there.

2017 National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition

Details here.

Tell me again about the public trust (nearly 70 antiquities originally from Egypt and other countries edition)

The Toledo Museum of Art is selling.  Don't be alarmed by the fact that "modern international cultural heritage laws make it impossible to acquire such antiquities, meaning the Toledo museum is unlikely to ever be able to replace the objects if leaders would choose to do so."

It's not like those nearly 70 objects, having fallen under the aegis of a museum, were held in the public trust, to be accessible to present and future generations.  That's a totally made up thing. No one ever says that.