Thursday, December 26, 2019

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

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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"

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Story here . Decision (on summary judgment) here . After receiving an invoice, Edelman wrote to the seller, "As thirty days from your i...

Inigo Update

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Athena Art Finance has joined the fray:   A Prominent Art-Finance Company Says Embattled Dealer Inigo Philbrick Owes It $15 Million for a Lo...

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

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Story here .
Saturday, December 14, 2019

The Di Rosa Deaccessioning Is Moving Forward

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Charles Desmarais has an update here . Background here . I'm not sure why, but this one has largely escaped the attention of the Deacc...

"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."

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

The Top 13 Art Law Disputes of 2019

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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.'"

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"The long-running criminal case between the Russian billionaire collector Dmitry Rybolovlev and the Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, whic...

"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."

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Deaccessioning Hall of Fame Scholar-in-Residence Brian Frye has an (intentionally) bananas argument that certificate-based conceptual art...
Monday, December 09, 2019

"State Street’s lawyers, who are seeking unspecified damages, argued in court that the replicas were a trademark violation and diluted the company’s message."

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I missed this right before the holiday, but an update from the New York Times on the "Fearless Girl" litigation. Background here ...
Thursday, December 05, 2019

"Despite the artwork’s hefty price tag, Perrotin isn’t worried about someone stealing Comedian. There’s a spare banana on hand in the booth, and more importantly, without the artist’s certificate of authenticity, it reverts to being just a banana." (UPDATED 2X)

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The magic of certificates of authenticity, Miami Basel edition . UPDATE: This has predictably generated a ton of coverage (and banana puns...
Wednesday, December 04, 2019

"Who Is Inigo Philbrick?"

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Meet the Man Behind One of the Biggest Potential Modern Art Scandals .
Saturday, November 23, 2019

"Taking Intellectual Property into Their Own Hands"

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Fantastic new law review article by Amy Adler and Jeanne Fromer. Section I.E is particularly incisive.

The Wealth Tax and The Arts

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Some thoughts from Tyler Cowen:   Tax the Wealthy and Their Charities Will Suffer . And some criticisms from Michael Rushton here .

"The Scandal Engulfing Dealer Inigo Philbrick Widens Amid New Accusations That He Duped the Buyer of a $12 Million Basquiat"

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Eileen Kinsella has the latest .  Background here .

"Mr. Cattelan said he did not expect to get the toilet back. But the piece exhibited at Blenheim was just one of three he made, so there were two more available, he said."

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The case of the stolen gold toilet remains unsolved. The New York Times reports that "the police are still looking for the missing jo...

"A Prominent Chinese-American Artist Is the Latest to Fall Afoul of China’s Censors"

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New York Times story here .

"$300 Million Worth of Work by Anselm Kiefer and Other German Artists Has Mysteriously Gone Missing in China"

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" According to several German media reports, the works belong to millionaire Maria Chen-Tu, a German collector of Taiwanese heritage, w...

"'It is a triumph of truth and marks the end of a cover-up', said Jean-Jacques Neuer, lawyer for Picasso's son Claude Ruiz-Picasso."

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AFP:   French court confirms sentence for Picasso's electrician over hoarded art . Background here .
Monday, November 18, 2019

"I don't know how much clearer I can be about this: we are moving the Bull."

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The Art Newspaper: Plans to move lower Manhattan’s Charging Bull sculpture raises furore . Nicholas O'Donnell says : "If the arti...