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Dear Sara,
2022 is reaching new heights of surreal. From Geo-politics, a growing refugee crises, a leaked Supreme Court decision draft that turned into the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the legal and international world is in a level of disarray. It's hard, and heartbreaking in many different ways and it can be difficult to see some kind of silver lining. So, while we process through the events in whatever way we can, the only thing that we can truly do is look towards the future--whatever that may hold.
For the past and future of the Center, this summer we've had interesting events on domain names, the metaverse and artist-dealer relationships, and there’s even more exciting things in the future. If you haven’t managed to check out our artist-dealer relationship event series just yet, please check out the newest event coming out in mid-July on Artist-Gallerist Relationships, and be sure to sign up for the grand opening of our Artist-Dealer Relationships Clinic–from contract negotiations to IP licensing issues, this clinic will cover all the details that seem so mysterious to artists looking into the relationship from the outside.
And if you’ve missed our in-person events, and need a distraction of sorts, we invite you to save the date for the 2022 Art Law Conference! In collaboration with the New York Law School, this conference will include a keynote on the KleptoCaputre Task Force, three panels on the issues surrounding our three legal clinics, followed by a networking reception. If you’re in New York, or close enough to stop by, please put July 28, 2022 on your calendar! Registration and more information to follow soon.
As we've all noticed, these are certainly unprecedented times that we are living in (and have been living in), and we're unsure what the future holds. But we hope that things can only go up from here.
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Warm Regards,
Minelli Manoukian
Executive Director
Center for Art Law
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Students are eligible for a discount on membership. Contact us for more info! |
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CENTER FOR ART LAW Finding a Home for Your Art Archive
 July 7, 2022, 12:00 PM EST
Online
Join the Center for Art Law and Lisa Darms, Executive Director at the nonprofit Hauser & Wirth Institute, for an event exploring the ‘behind the scenes’ on selecting and curating archives. Drawing in particular from her years as a curator of archival collections at New York University’s Fales Library and her previous work as an appraiser and dealer, Lisa will explore the importance of agreements; discuss issues of copyright, privacy and confidentiality, and talk about the ethical considerations inherent in placing archives. (Please note, this workshop deals with archival materials like correspondence, press materials, notebooks, digital work files, photographs etc., and not with collections of actual artworks).
Register Here.
CENTER FOR ART LAW Artist-Gallerist Relationships: Building Lasting Galleries
July 12, 2022, 12:00 PM EST
Online
Join the Center for Art Law in conversation with Fabian Lang, an art gallerist based in Zurich and Judd Grossman, Founder and Managing Partner of Grossman LLP. Through the session, the audience will gain conversance with artist-gallerist relationships, the steps involved in building a gallery, and the complexities of drafting and negotiating contracts from the perspectives of a dealer and an attorney.
Register Here.
UNITE FOR UKRAINE Global Concern Event
July 16, 2022, 8:00 PM EST
Online
World Unite for Ukraine, a global grassroots movement, will present a streaming, 90+ minute benefit concert event on June 16, 2022. Streamed to 25+ countries, the event will feature music by Pink Floyd, AJR, Pat McGee Band and Crash Test Dummies among others, as well as appearances by actors Liev Schreiber and Pej Vahdat, Ukrainian-born multimedia artist Janina Pedan, and other celebrities from the U.S., Ukraine and other countries across the globe.
More Information Here.
CENTER FOR ART LAW Art Law Conference 2022
July 28, 2022, 1:00 PM EST
Online
Center for Art Law invites you to Art Law Conference 2022 on July 28 from 1 p.m - 6 p.m. EST at New York Law School! Reception for networking and reunion will follow the substantive portion of the day. Our conference will celebrate exciting and contemporary topics on all things art and law, including:
- Immigration and Artists,
- Estate and Legacy Planning,
- Artist-Dealer Relationships.
The conference will feature a keynote presentation on KleptoCapture task force and Anti-Money Laundering efforts concerning the Art Market.
Attendance will be available both in-person and online to best serve our community members and patrons.
CENTRE FOR GLOBAL HERITAGE AND DEVELOPMENT Summer School: Contested Heritage and the Role of Provenance Research
August 19, 2022 - September 1, 2022
Online
Every year -at the end of August - the Centre for Global Heritage and Development organizes a summer school. This year, our summer school will focus on contested cultural objects and the role of provenance research (ownership history). What are the standards for heritage protection and ownership of cultural objects that were (or might have been) looted, recently or in the past? Moreover, what is the role of law enforcement in these matters? In an interdisciplinary setting, with scholars and professionals from the fields of law, cultural heritage, law enforcement and the art market, we will look at the standards and mechanisms that are in place to prevent cultural objects from being acquired, and/or traded unlawfully.
Register Here.
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Center for Art Law is hosting its 2022 Art Law Conference on July 28th at New York Law School! The event will consist of a keynote speech, three panels on the topics of immigration art law, estate planning, and artist-dealer relationships respectively, and a closing networking event!
The themes explored in the 2022 Art Law Conference are based on the Center for Art Law’s newly launched Legal Clinics covering immigration, trusts and estates and artist-dealer relationships. In addition, the event’s reception is held in honor of Judith Bresler, a recognized leader in the field and a co-author of the seminal Art Law treatise, after which the Center launched the Judith Bresler Fellowship in 2021!
Attendance will be available both in-person and online to best serve our community members and patrons. Save the date and look out for more info soon!
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Center for Art Law is completing the comparative study of Anti-Money Laundering regulations related to the 5th EU Directive and related US legislative efforts. We are looking for lawyers and art Dealers who can answer questions on the operation of relevant AML regulations in the following jurisdictions: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
Please contact us at "info@itsartlaw.org" if you’d like to participate and we will send you our survey questions.
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Conspiracy Theory Craze
Rumors swirled in the small Welsh town of Pembroke Dock this spring that a local politician by the name of William Gannon might actually be the notoriously anonymous street artist, Banksy. While the origin of the rumors are unknown, Gannon worked as an artist before getting into local politics, and believes the rumor was started by a rival council group. Gannon has since stepped down from his position to spare the town from any more controversy.
Will You (Not) Be My Neighbor?
An ongoing dispute between neighbors comes to a close as the city of Laguna Beach ruled in favor of Bill and Amy Gross regarding their right to install and preserve a $1 million Dale Chihuly glass sculpture in their yard. The Grosses’ neighbors, Carol Nakahara and Mark Towfiq, originally objected to the sculpture’s installation, claiming the sculpture obstructed their otherwise clear view of the sea. The dispute, including restraining orders, the Gilligan’s Island theme song, a jail sentence for the Grosses, and a bizarre video of the Grosses in their pool, seems to be resolved… for now.
Kleefeld Russian Nesting Doll Conundrum
Formerly the University Art Museum, the contemporary art museum at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB)has been renamed the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum. Who is Carolyn Kleefeld? That is the question on many people’s minds after the self-proclaimed contemporary artist, who donated $10 million to the museum, was allotted a permanent showing of her work in her self-titled gallery located in her self-titled museum. Kleefeld’s name is also on 6% of the works in the Museum’s permanent collection after she donated 74 of her paintings and 104 of her drawings to the museum. The issue? One of many criticisms is that Kleefeld’s oeuvre lacks true artistic merit. As proclaimed by an anonymous arts professor at CSULB, “if that was a student applicant’s portfolio, they wouldn’t get admitted to the program.” This “pay-your-way into the art world” scheme, particularly at a University-affiliated museum, sends a bleak message to art students who do not have an extra $10 million on hand to bootstrap their careers.
An IMPORTant work won’t be EXPORTed, at least for now
The U.K. government has instituted a temporary export ban on a mid-17th century painting by Nicholas Poussin. Titled Confirmation, this depiction of children participating in a religious ceremony has been offered for sale by the painting’s owner, 11th Duke of Rutland, David Manners. The work has been hailed as an exemplar of “restrained classicism” that the U.K. government hopes to keep within its borders. The export ban, in effect until January 9, 2023, will afford a U.K. museum or gallery the opportunity to acquire the work before it is offered to the international market. The painting has been valued at $23 million. (see also: Louvre bids to classify “Basket of Wild Strawberries” by Jean Siméon Chardin as a national treasure to prevent export to Kimbell Art Museum.)
Show your TexSTYLE
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is currently hosting an exhibit entitled, Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art. This show includes 35 international contemporary artists and notably features Yinka Shonibare and Mary Sibande. The top-of-mind goal of this show is to bridge the gap between fine and applied art. Often, the applied arts are ranked as second-tier to painting, sculpture, and the like. The works on display in Garmenting challenge this distinction. Each piece stands alone as a visually-stimulating amalgamation of textiles that relay varying motifs, from personhood to politics to perturbation. The exhibit is on view at MAD through August 14, 2022.
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National Museum of Solvenia and Canceled Exhibition
The National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana recently canceled its planned exhibition featuring works on loan from the Boljkovac family. The secretive Boljkovac family, famed by the late Croatian politician Josip Boljkovac, loaned the museum over 150 alleged masterpieces, including works by Picasso, Degas, and Chagall. The authenticity of said works are currently under police investigations and determined to be forgeries and/or fakes. As the police investigation progressed, the director of the museum resigned.
The Eternal Fountain of Youth…and Wealth
Andres Valencia was only ten years old when he became an overnight sensation at Art Miami in 2021. Influenced by the Cubist movement and artists such as Picasso and George Condo, Valencia’s art sells for a pretty price. Most recently, his seminal work, Ms. Cube (2020) was featured on the Phillips Auction block in Hong Kong on June 21 and is estimated to sell for at least $50,000. Though still very young, Valencia’s work is comparable to that of seasoned professionals.
Net-a-Voire?
Known for its collection of luxury clothing and accessories, fashion empire Net-a-Porter has now entered into the world of art. Not only will the company curate what its consumers wear, it can now curate artistic preferences. In collaboration with AP8, an e-commerce platform for art, Net-a-Porter strives to make the process of acquiring fine art as accessible as they have made purchasing luxury fashion. To preserve the unique value and provenance of each work, certification codes, digital watermarks, and stenographic cryptography will be implemented, all while fostering a new community and generation of digital art collectors.
British Museum considers sharing Parthenon Marbles with Greece
In a long-standing debate regarding the British Museum’s possession of the Parthenon Marbles of Ancient Greece, the museum’s chairman George Osborne, proposes that the two nations “share” the object. The Parthenon Marbles were looted from the Acropolis by British archaeologist Lord Elgin in 1801 and Osborne claims that the museum operates independently from the government, removing any responsibility on behalf of the museum for repatriating the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. However, the museum maintains that public access to these arts should be heralded by the British Museum. Greek scholars, Greek communities, and antiquities advocates gathered on June 18 to protest the museum’s ownership of the Parthenon Marbles and advocate for their return to Greece.
DALL - E : If WALL - E met Picasso
A new meme sensation has arrived in the form of artificial intelligence called DALL-E. Expanding upon the capabilities of computer language GPT-3, DALL-E uses a 12-billion parameter to generate images from text descriptions and pulls from a dataset of text-image pairs. Popular creations so far include “Walter White painted by Van Gogh,” “Donald Trump Starry Night,” and “Marble Sculpture of Handsome Squidward.” As DALL-E continues to generate images, its creators hope to understand its impact on societal issues and its greater lasting effects on technology and art.
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Let Them Eat Cake
A 36 year old man dressed in disguise as an elderly woman, wheelchair and all, entered the Louvre Museum on May 29, intent on making a statement. He first gained museum goers’ attention by throwing roses in the gallery and then proceeded to smear the Mona Lisa with a cream coated cake. Luckily, the Mona Lisa has been protected by glass since the 1950’s, following an acid attack, so no further harm was done.
Cultural Backup: How 3D Digitalization Can Back Up Ukraine Historical Sites
As Russian forces advance, Ukraine’s cultural heritage becomes increasingly precarious. Starting as part of the national initiative to protect and preserve the historical sites and artifacts from the war, a movement called “Backup Ukraine” was kindled nationally and internationally by activists in the 3D scanning industries and volunteers. 3D scanning has been employed by many cultural institutions to digitally document artifacts, monuments, and buildings for archival purposes. Digitizing objects involves scanning, processing, and publishing. First, portable 3D scanning technologies such as Polycam (an app compatible with iOS or Android) or more professional Creamform scanning models will capture the three-dimensional form of the target objects. The scanners typically place non-adhesive dots all over the scanning target and form a web of dots. The dots then connect, lock, and enable the scanner to generate photographs by dotted regions and digitally build 3D objects based on captured images. After scanning, the second step is processing. This step allows scanning software, such as ones provided by Autodesk, to fix the technical flaws and generate perfect 3D models. Lastly, once the model is ready, the scanner may tag or publish the result to the institutional archival platforms or public domain with CC licensing protections.
Still Present! Colonialism in the West
At the heart of the 12th Berlin Biennale of Contemporary Art are themes of colonialism, belonging, imperialism, and memory. The Biennale is titled Still Present! and emphasized the existing tensions between communities in the imagined idea of East and West. Congolese artist Sammy Baloji invited his audience to reflect on the ways imperialism has rooted itself in contemporary society. Deneth Piumakshi Veda Arachige, who hails from Sri Lanka and lives in France, presented a self-corporeal exhibit to examine the implications of restitution from a feminist point of view. Curator of the Biennale, Kader Attia, strives to continue engaging public audiences with decolonial discourse and fostering communities to inspire critical conversations for collective healing.
Once a Scam Artist, Always a Scam Artist?
Anna Sorokin, better known as Anna Delvey, is making headlines again after the “Free Anna” group art show which ran from March 24-27 in the Lower East Side ofManhattan. Delvey’s original artwork sold for $10,000 at the show. Julia Morrison, a California based multimedia artist, put up about $8,000 to help facilitate the show and has yet to be paid back. Morrison’s co-curator, Alfredo Martinez, said that she would be paid back, although there was no written agreement. While Morrison has reached out to Delvey for assistance, Delvey has since blocked her number.
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Friend or Foe? Francis Bacon Authenticity Dispute in the Tate London
During his lifetime, the British painter Francis Bacon had befriended many phenomenal artists in Soho: Maggi Hambling, Henrietta Moraes, Lucian Freud, and more. In 2004, Bacon’s friend Barry Joule, a handyman, donated to the Tate over 1,000 sketches, photographs, magazine cuttings, and other archival documents allegedly belonging to the late painter. Now, after debating the collection’s authenticity and value for public exhibition, the Tate in London returned all of Joule’s donations. Consequently, Joule stopped donating the rest of his alleged Bacon collections to the Tate and other British cultural institutions.
Ivan the Terrible and His Son survived the Terrible Vandalism
In 1885, Ilya Repin, one of the finest Russian masters of Realism, who was then born in a region of modern Ukraine, depicted the melodramatic scene of the demise of the Romanov royal family. The artwork presents the violent aftermath of the Tsar Alexander II’s mental outbreaks. First, the mentally ill monarch struck his son Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich on the head and then directly caused his death. Repin captured the horrified father’s remorse and his anguished expression, while coupling the violence with trails of blood, a crimson red carpet, and a darkened room. The painting was hung in Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery and then vandalized by a drunk man in 2018. The vandal, Podporin, used a metal pole to smash the protective glass and cause jarring damage to the canvas. After four years of restoration, which costed millions of dollars, the painting now hangs in Tretyakov’s Ilya Repin Hall. It will be ready for public viewing after installing a bullet-proof, anti-vandal glass of the highest grade.
The Criminal Side of NFTs In The Art World
As art goes increasingly digital, so does art crime, and it seems that the crypto revolution has accelerated the pace of criminal activity. Law enforcement and other frameworks are still in the early stages of mastering these challenges, with a key issue being how to classify these crimes, especially with so many anonymous players. However, law firms are quickly developing a range of tools to respond to these events, such as the use of third parties to obtain information about crypto users.
Digital Repatriation
NFTs aren’t all bad, though. A new NFT project, “Looty”, was released in early May with the intent of providing alternative forms of restitution for African looted art. It plans to (legally) make NFTs of known looted African artifacts and sell them. In addition, twenty percent of the proceeds of these sales will be donated to a grant fund for a young African artists, in an effort to show the importance of access to cultural heritage for contemporary artists. Looty’s first collection consists of 25 NFTs of the Benin Bronzes, based on a looted Oba head in the British Museum.
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Djohan Stella v. Femme Assise, 1958, In Rem, No. L-001425-22 (N.J. Super. Ct. Law Div. filed June 8, 2022).
Snyder et al. v. Adams et al. No. 1:22-cv-03873 (S.D.N.Y May 12, 2022).
Emden v. Museum of Fine Arts, No. 4:21-CV-3348, 2022 BL 151076, 2022 Us Dist Lexis 78851 (S.D. Tex. May 02, 2022).
Art Works Inc. v. Al-Hadid, No. 651267, 2021, 2022 NYLJ LEXIS 489
Dr. Eliiot McGucken v. Kantor Gallery, et al., No. 2:21-cv-04593-DMG-AS.
Klauber Brothers, Inc. v. Urban Outfitters, Inc., No. 1:21-CV-4526-GHW, 2022 WL 1539905
United States v. Inigo Philbrick, No. 20 Cr. 00351 (S.D.N.Y.)
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A Monumental Effort: An Examination of Cultural Heritage Protection in the MENA Region
Image Credits: © Vyacheslav Argenberg / http://www.vascoplanet.com/, Creative Commons 4.0 License By Alisa Grishin Cultural Heritage: An Introduction Since the advent of human existence, we have been creating. These creations – the art, monuments, cities, and artifacts – of our ancestors have prevailed for generations, constantly linking us to the past and reminding us of cultural […]
The post A Monumental Effort: An Examination of Cultural Heritage Protection in the MENA Region appeared first on Center for Art Law.
Dynamic Policies of Deaccessioning and Disposal in American Museums
Image Credits: Credit: The Baltimore Museum of Art (via Baltimore Heritage/Flickr) By: Nicholas Michael Alfred H. Barr Jr, Museum of Modern Art’s first ever director, analogized the modern museum’s collection to a torpedo “moving through time, its nose the ever advancing present, its tail the ever receding past of 50 to 100 years ago.”[1] In his […]
The post Dynamic Policies of Deaccessioning and Disposal in American Museums appeared first on Center for Art Law.
Case Review: Cassirer et. al. v. Thyssen Bornemisza Collection Foundation (2022)
by Anissa Patel Overview Since 1993, Rue Saint-Honoré, après-midi, effet de pluie[1], an oil painting by the French impressionist master Camille Pissarro has been hanging at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation’s Museum (the “Museum”) located in Spain.[2] The painting was originally purchased in 1898 by Julius Cassirer, a member of a wealthy Jewish family once living […]
The post Case Review: Cassirer et. al. v. Thyssen Bornemisza Collection Foundation (2022) appeared first on Center for Art Law.
Legacy and Lawsuits: An Overview of the Robert Indiana Estate Court Battles
By Atreya Mathur The story of Robert Indiana’s Estate is a fascinating one: full of art, drama, lawsuits, LOVE,[1] and maybe HOPE[2]. One of the best known American Artists, Indiana, who became a leading figure in the Pop art movement in the 1960s and called himself an “American painter of signs,”[3] left behind more than […]
The post Legacy and Lawsuits: An Overview of the Robert Indiana Estate Court Battles appeared first on Center for Art Law.
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See Art, Think Art Law (TM)
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Exhibitions and Events on Our Radar
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Sam Gillian
Dia Beacon (NY)
Through July 31, 2022
Dia Art Foundation presents an exhibition of Sam Gilliam’s early work from the 1960s and 1970s at Dia Beacon in Beacon, New York. Installed alongside Dia’s permanent collection, this presentation situates Gilliam’s practice in dialogue with that of his Minimal and Postminimal peers, such as Robert Morris and Anne Truitt, who, like Gilliam, considered painting in an expanded form. One of the most important figures in American abstract art, he emerged from the Washington, DC, cultural scene in the 1960s alongside Truitt. Setting himself apart stylistically from Washington Color School painters, with whom he is often associated, the artist incorporated a beveled edge and experimented with suspension as two distinct methods of working with canvas.
Afro-Atlantic Histories
The National Gallery (Washington, DC)
Through July 17, 2022
The National Gallery has long had a reputation for elevating the western canon, favoring the classics over contemporary or more politically contentious exhibition choices. Yet, recent changes in leadership and the creation of an African American and Afro-diasporic art department for the first time at the museum means that’s changing. Its latest show “Afro-Atlantic Histories” is no less than groundbreaking, and includes historical and contemporary artworks that trace the history of the black diaspora living in the US from slavery to liberation, many pieces of which were only recently acquired by the museum. Fundamentally, this exhibition demonstrates an institutional level acceptance of African American, Indigenous, feminist and other art histories that have long been discarded by public American museums. The move is sparking appreciation from some of the show’s most high profile visitors, including no less than incoming U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the Obamas.
Nicholas Party: L’Heure Mauve
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Quebec)
Through October, 2022
A self-curated exhibition of Nicholas Party entitled L’heure Mauve (Mauve Twilight)
is on view until October 2022 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts! The swiss-born artist has not only been enjoying critical acclaim on the global museum circuit for this last year, touring museums in Europe and the US, but has also been getting more expensive on the commercial end! The exhibition is stunningly organized and half of the artworks are by Party himself, with the remaining canvases hand-chosen by the artist from the museum’s permanent collection, which explicitly displays Party’s intended dialogues with and references to art history. The show has multiple rooms, each of which traces a different stage in evolution, or rather descent of humanity to doom. The show is laden with art historical golden nuggets, including biblical references, allusions to the discourse on the landscape painting genre, and a comment on the capitalist reflections of Dutch still lives. Yet, the show is also an aesthetic delight for non-art history lovers who can revel in the pastel colors as well as the iconic and evocative quality of Party’s severe yet elegant surrealist dreamscapes. Finally, a pro-tip for a Montreal local: get a ticket for one of the museum’s monthly Monochrome Parties and enjoy not only access to the exhibition but a DJ performance, happy hour, and crafts workshop inside the exhibition space!
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Building Our Community Together!
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In May and June, the Center for Art Law has been conducting surveys, which have given us an opportunity to learn more about our subscribers –– what you like, what you don’t, what you’d like to see more off, and so on. Our sincere thank you goes out to all who have already completed these surveys!
If you have not filled out our survey yet, you can find it HERE.
And if you’ve been a long-term subscriber, please consider UPDATING YOUR PROFILE.
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Coral Gables Museum: Curator
of Urban and Architectural History
(Florida, US)
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The Coral Gables Museum is currently accepting applications for the position of Curator of Urban and Architectural History. Reporting to the Director of Exhibitions, the Curator of Urban and Architectural History at the Coral Gables Museum is responsible for developing, implementing, managing, and evaluating the Museum’s architectural collections and exhibitions.
Read more about how the position and how to apply HERE.
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Global Threats and Organized Crime Unit: Project manager, AML/CFT portfolio (M/F)
(France)
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The project manager is responsible for a project portfolio dedicated to the fight against the financing of terrorism and money laundering. The two projects are implemented within the framework of a decentralized organization in conjunction with coordinators based in Brussels (Global Facility AML/CFT) and Dakar (OCWAR-M). A third project is expected to join this portfolio in the summer of 2022.
Read more about how the position and how to apply HERE.
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