News broke this afternoon that Judge Robert Okun has allowed the Corcoran Gallery and Corcoran College of Art + Design’s News broke this afternoon that Judge Robert Okun has allowed the Corcoran Gallery and Corcoran College of Art + Design’s cy prés petition to modify their governing trust to merge operations with the National Gallery of Art and George Washington university. I do not have a copy of the opinion yet, but Rebecca Cooper at the Washington Business Journal quotes the opinion as follows:
Nicholas O'Donnell
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Topics: Deaccession, Washington Business Journal, National Gallery of Art, George Washington University, Rebecca Cooper, Cy Pres, Judge Robert Okun, Corcoran College of Art + Design, Trusts, Corcoran Gallery, Museums, The Atlantic, Corcoran
Eileen Kinsella at ArtNet news reported today that the Gurlitt Taskforce has recommended the restitution of the Max Liebermann painting Riders on the Beach (Reiter am Strand) to David Toren, a New York man who left Germany at age 14 in 1939. His great uncle David Friedmann lived in Breslau, the capital of Silesia (now part of Poland, known as Wrocław). The Nazis catalogued and seized Friedmann’s art collection in 1939-40, and the Liebermann painting appears on those records. It was later found among those 1,280 objects seized from Gurlitt a little over two years ago when he aroused suspicion returning from Switzerland with a large amount of cash.
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Topics: Breslau, Eileen Kinsella, Wrocław, Gurlitt Task Force, Max Liebermann, Silesia, Nazi-looted art, Gurlitt Collection, Entartete Kunst, Reiter am Strand, August Matteis, Restitution, David Toren, 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(2), World War II, Switzerland, degenerate art, Poland, Altmann v. Republic of Austria, Kunstmuseum Bern, www.lostart.de, Berner Zeitung, Riders on the Beach, David Friedmann, ArtNet news
The two-week trial over the possible reformation of the Corcoran Gallery and the Corcoran College of Art + Design ended last week, with Judge Robert Okun expected to rule by the end of the month.
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Topics: Deaccession, National Gallery of Art, Jayme McLellan, Andrew Tulumello, Save the Corcoran, George Washington University, Charles Patrizia, Deaccessioning, Cy Pres, Judge Robert Okun, Corcoran College of Art + Design, William Corcoran¸ Kriston Capps, Trusts, Corcoran Gallery, Museums, Lynn Sures, Peggy Loar, The Atlantic, Corcoran
Judge Robert Okun closed the first week of hearings yesterday on the proposed modifications to the Corcoran Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery of Art + Design in Washington, DC. The Corcoran’s trustees have petitioned the DC Superior Court for cy prés, to modify the trust that governs the two institutions to allow mergers with the National Gallery and George Washington University. All told, reports indicate that both sides have made strong presentations of the financial hardship on the one hand, and the possibility that the proposal may not be the only way out of this on the other.
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Topics: Linda Daschle, Deaccession, Kenneth Duberstein, George Washington University, William “Billy” Martin, University of Maryland, Adrian M. Fenty, Wayne Reynolds, Cy Pres, Corcoran College of Art + Design, Catherine Merrill Williams, Wallace D. Loh, Buffy Cafritz, Lauren Stack, Frank Connor III, Trusts, The Washington Post, Corcoran Gallery, Museums, Susan Molinari, Harry F. Hopper III, National Gallery, Graham Holdings, Richard Okun, Marcus Brauchli
Readers will recall the strange case of “Dumb Starbucks” earlier this year, which initially seemed to pose the question of whether a coffee shop that transparently used the marks and copyrights of Starbucks could claim fair use as an art gallery. It turned out that the entire performance was just that, a lead up to a Comedy Central series that has since debuted. We are not, of course, television critics, but in addition to being hillarious (and undoubtedly tongue in cheek), the full episode is an interesting platform for questions about the players and entities that can claim fair use to copyrights or trademarks over visual and creative works. In the end, the parody/fair use question could never really be answered, but the coverage the numerous news clips that the show included is a reminder of the difficulty of applying art critical concepts to legal analysis.
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Topics: Comedy Central, parody, Nathan for You, Weird Al Yankovic, @dumbstarbucks, Nathan Fielder, Copyright, Starbucks, Twitter, Fair Use
The Department of Justice has made public its plans to let the deadline pass for seeking rehearing or further review of the June, 2014 decision affirming the dismissal of its efforts to seize the Mask of Ka Nefer Nefer in the St. Louis Art Museum by civil forfeiture. In an interview with St. Louis Post-Dispatch, United States Attorney Richard Callahan stated that “The Department of Justice will take no further legal action with respect to the mask.”
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Topics: Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, St. Louis Art Museum, Department of Justice, Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e), the Art Law Report, 19 U.S.C. § 1595a, United States, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Museums, Customs, Civil Forfeiture, Ancient Egypt
Weeks after the city of Detroit released its valuation expert report on the value of the full collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts by Artvest Partners, creditors opposed to the city’s plan of adjustment and the “Grand Bargain” within it have released their own appraisal. Not surprisingly, it asserts a significantly higher value of roughly $8.5 billion, more than double the estimate in the city’s report. New York’s Victor Wiener Associates (VWA) has apparently compiled a 50-page appraisal on behalf of Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press have received copies, none are publicly available of which I’m aware).
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Topics: Victor Wiener Associates, Detroit News, Detroit Institute of Arts, Bankruptcy, Artvest Partners, Detroit Free Press, Financial Guaranty Insurance Company, Detroit Bankruptcy, grand bargain
I took part in a panel discussion at the Sotheby’s Institute on May 27, 2014 entitled “Art Fairs: An Irresistible Force In The Art World?”
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Topics: Eileen Kinsella, Entertainment Arts & Sports Law Section, Kristina Nazarevskaia, Richard, Elizabeth Dee, Events, Edward Winkleman, Art Fairs, Indpendent, New York State Bar Association, Judith B. Prowda, galleryIntell, John Haber, Nicholas M. O'Donnell, ArtNet
As if the Cornelius/Hildebrand Gurlitt saga needed any more complications as the world awaits the official decision by the Kunstmuseum Bern about whether to accept the appointment as Cornelius Gurlitt’s heir, even more artwork has apparently turned up. Der Spiegel, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Wall Street Journal have reported that one picture and several sculptures in the very apartment from which the original trove was seized more than two years ago. Among the sculptures are apparently a Degas and a Rodin. Nothing else seems known about the works or their ownership history, or whether they might be among works that Hildebrand Gurlitt sold or acquired as "degenerate" (side note: the Victoria and Albert Museum's copy of the Degenerate Art Action register is currently on display in New York at the Neue Galerie's exhibition of that title. While it is available online, it is most certainly worth a visit before the show ends).
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Topics: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Victoria and Albert Museum, Rodin, Cornelius Gurlitt, Schwabinger Kunstfund. Kunstfund München, Gurlitt Task Force, Fall Gurlitt, Gurlitt Collection, Degas, Hildebrand Gurlit, Entartete Kunst, Gurlitt, Restitution, Bavaria, Neue Galerie, Der Spiegel, Wall Street Journal, World War II, Degenerate Art Action, degenerate art, Kunstmuseum Bern, www.lostart.de, Nazi art, Raubkunst
The Washington Business Journal‘s Rebecca Cooper tweeted today from the courtroom today that District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Robert Okun has allowed in part the motion to intervene in the Corcoran Gallery cy prés petition. Reports are that current students of the College of Art + Design, as well as current Corcoran employees were allowed to intervene, while intervention was denied to the organization “Save the Corcoran” and past employees and students.
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Topics: Donn Zaretsky, Deaccession, Washington Business Journal, National Gallery of Art, Save the Corcoran, George Washington University, Lee Rosenbaum, Rebecca Cooper, Cy Pres, Judge Robert Okun, District of Columbia Superior Court, Corcoran College of Art + Design, District Attorney General Irvin Nathan, Trusts, Corcoran Gallery, District of Columbia, Museums
