"All buyers must also sign a contract with extensive conditions. They must agree not to resell the work at auction for at least five years; if they do want to sell, they must give the artist right of first refusal; and, if they sell to someone else, they have to give 15 percent of the upside back to the artists."

A contractual resale royalty is in place for "'Say It Loud (I’m Black and Proud),' an online selling exhibition at Christie’s that opened on July 31 and is dedicated to the promotion of Black art."

Arlene Dávila tweets: "Great example of how curators can advocate for artists' resale royalty rights. Let's stop the speculation & the unequal model where only collectors/speculators benefit from the evaluation of artists' works."

The Christopher Sprigman view of this would be that it will to some extent suppress the price buyers are willing to pay for the works in the auction (i.e., that you would pay for more for an asset that comes with no strings attached than you would for the same asset with these conditions).

Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento: "One thing that really annoys me is how articles like this get written with absolutely no mention of well-known historical precedents, like Robert Projansky’s and Seth Siegelaub’s The Artist’s Reserved Rights Transfer And Sale Agreement, from 1971. God forbid there would be any mention of Hans Haacke or Michael Asher."

A while back, musician and art collector Swizz Beatz had a proposal for an auction house-based resale royalty scheme, mentioned here.

"The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is suing the architects who planned its warehouse expansion five years ago, alleging they failed to design a structure that would prevent condensation from occurring inside that could damage artwork and other precious items."

 Buffalo News story here.

"A Brooklyn Art-Storage Company Is Suing Art Dealer Fergus McCaffrey for Allegedly Failing to Pay His $145,000 Bill"

 artnet news story here.

"Staten Island artist Scott LoBaido has a lawyer and is ready to take on the de Blasio administration in court if the Department of Transportation continues to pressure him to remove his thin blue line outside of the 122 precinct."

The artist says he "painted the blue line as a way to stand in solidarity with the NYPD after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he would paint 'Black Lives Matter” street murals across the five boroughs on the heels of nationwide racial injustice protests." His lawyer argues: "Cites can do one of two things, they can either paint nothing and take no position, or they can allow everybody to paint … their own political points of view on the streets. But they can’t selectively say ‘my political opinion is going to be allowed to be painted and yours is not, and if you paint yours, you’re going to be subject to fines, penalty, imprisonment."

"In a statement to the Daily News, he said: 'It may be left over from my divorce, but I don’t have such a bill.'"

 "Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and attorney to Donald Trump, has been hit with a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court by an art advisor who says he failed to pay for her appraisal services, which he received during his contentious divorce from Judith Nathan in 2019.  The advisor, Miller Gaffney, runs the firm MGAA. She is alleging that Giuliani owes more than $15,700 for services rendered."

"An Italian court was weighing whether to press charges, CNN reported on Wednesday."

 NYT:  Tourist Posing With 200-Year-Old Sculpture Breaks Its Toes.

"Art Companies Jostle for Ownership of Basquiat Painting in New Inigo Philbrick–Related Lawsuit"

The latest, from Alex Greenberger at ARTnews, here.

"Doubting Gauguin"

Sebastian Smee in the Washington Post: An amateur detective takes on the National Gallery, and the art world.

"G&M’s petition is the first direct challenge to VARA’s constitutionality, and the Supreme Court’s response to the petition should be closely watched by property owners—including retail stores that may commission street art to adorn their retail space, as well as the art world generally."

5Pointz Owner Seeks SCOTUS Review of VARA. Background here.

Yet another mural dispute

This one in Oslo.

"But just as one mural controversy is ending, another is beginning."

Another mural-related VARA dispute. Story here.

This one may have a statute of limitations complication: "Carrera says the city violated the statute when it installed the parade mural in 2012. She says she never waived her rights to her painting in writing, a requirement of the law."

"The report said the financial transactions were enabled by the secrecy and anonymity with which the art market operates and it called for tighter rules to force greater transparency." (UPDATED)

New York Times: Senate Report: Opaque Art Market Helped Oligarchs Evade Sanctions.

UPDATE: A deep-dive from Tim Schneider, which ends up here: "The Senate report shows how complicated it can be to unmask the end client when shell companies, anonymous trusts, and legit-on-the-surface intermediaries are involved. Intense due diligence also conflicts with the volume and speed of business they need to do to break even, let alone turn a profit."

"Consistent with VARA, VLS will be reaching out to the artist to determine if he would like to remove the mural within 90 days. If the artist chooses not to remove the mural, the mural will be painted over or otherwise removed. In the meantime, the mural is being temporarily covered."

Story here:

"Painted and installed in the VLS Chase Community Center in 1993, 'The Underground Railroad, Vermont and the Fugitive Slave' 'celebrates the efforts of black and white Americans in Vermont and throughout the United States to achieve freedom and justice,' [the artist's] website says. ... [T]his summer, some current students said the mural 'perpetuates white supremacy, superiority, and the white savior complex,' and that the 'the over-exaggerated depiction of Africans, ... is eerily similar to Sambos, and other anti-black coon caricatures.' VLS on Friday said the Board of Trustees agreed with their concerns ..., but also would allow [the artist] a chance to remove the mural to comply with the Visual Artists Rights Act."

Related stories here and here. The Roberta Smith position -- that "once art has been made and released into the often choppy flow of life, it should stay there" -- seems to be losing ground.

"We liked this variation because it addresses some of the criticisms of the Siegelaub-Projansky contract (that only successful artists benefit from its use), and that it redistributes wealth to produce social good ...."

More on Kadist's new resale royalty contract, mentioned earlier here.

If we assume the problem a resale royalty is meant to address is the unfairness to the artist that results when a work significantly increases in value from its first sale ... I'm not sure how this solves that problem. This feels more like a tax on the sale proceeds, with the taxes earmarked for charity (albeit one the artist gets to designate). It's like a consolation prize: the artist herself doesn't get to share in the increase in value, but a charity she likes does. If you thought someone owed you $1,000 (and I think that's part of the case for resale royalties: that the artist has a moral claim to a share of the proceeds her work generates) and they said they wouldn't pay it to you but would instead give it to a charity of your choice, is that the same thing? Would that make you whole? I think you'd feel it was better than nothing, but, depending on how strong your connection to the charity is, not quite justice.

"G&M Realty ... filed a petition calling a provision of the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) unconstitutional, stating that language in the act is too vague and infringes on the rights of property owners."

Artsy: The real estate company ordered to pay 5Pointz artists $6.75 million has appealed to the Supreme Court.

Background here.

"Each of the former workers is expected to receive about 10 weeks of pay, said Daniel B. Rojas, one of the lawyers who represented them."

NYT: Marciano Foundation Settles Lawsuit Over Layoffs.

The settlement costs them about $200,000, plus they agreed to pay $70,000 in legal fees to the employees' lawyers.

Background here.

Five Years for Art Fraud

The Art Newspaper: "Philip Righter, 43, pleaded guilty to three felony charges—wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and tax fraud—in a case filed in Los Angeles. He admitted to selling works he falsely claimed were created by artists such as Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Kurt Schwitters and Roy Lichtenstein. According to a statement from the US Attorney’s office, Righter also admitted to using the fake art as collateral for loans on which he later defaulted ...."

Previously mentioned here.

"Protest Art Fate Tied to Obscure, Rarely Litigated Copyright Law"

That law being VARA. Story here.

Inigo Indicted

Alex Greenberger has the story at ARTnews.

"The lawsuit could serve as a cautionary tale ... for galleries moving more heavily into online sales."

The Art Newspaper: Painter Pat Lipsky sues over digitally ‘distorted’ images of her work.

This is interesting:

"Lipsky is suing under New York State’s 1984 Artist Authorship Rights Act, ... a precursor to the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act .... Megan E. Noh, a partner at the New York law firm Pryor Cashman who is representing the artist, says that the federal statute 'does not apply to the distortion of images of artworks but only to the physical distortion and destruction of the actual work,' while the older New York law expressly covers reproductions, such as photographs used for sales purposes."