A federal court in California has dismissed a claim by a buyer against Sotheby’s that alleged that the auction house sold him a work whose title was clouded because Hermann Göring had once owned it. What seemed liked a interesting new theory of liability was dismissed because the buyer had agreed in advance to litigate any disputes from the sale in the United Kingdom. It is somewhat surprising that the buyer even tried.
Nicholas O'Donnell
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Topics: provenance, Louis-Michel van Loo, Auctions, Nazi, California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, Christie's, Hermann Goring, Collections, Restitution, section 1750 of the California Civil Code, Allegorical Portrait of a Lady as Diana Wounded by, Sotheby's
My article “Chabad Library Case and Russian Art Loan Embargo Roil International Waters” was published in the June 4, 2013 edition of Bloomberg BNA - The United State Law Week. My article reviews the history of the Chabad Lubavitch library dispute and its impact on international relations and the art world. The article is linked here, reproduced with permission from the United States Law Week, Copyright © 2013 by the Bureau of National Affairs.
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Topics: Bloomberg BNA, The United State Law Week, Chabad Library Case and Russian Art Loan Embargo R, Restitution, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Chabad Lubavitch, Publications, Jewish Museum Moscow, Nicholas M. O'Donnell
The Velvet Underground and the Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts have settled their lawsuit over the right to control iconic “banana” image from the cover of the 1967 legendary The Velvet Underground and Nico album. An earlier September 7, 2012 ruling for the Warhol Foundation finding that that the Velvet Underground had agreed not to sue on any copyright theories left unanswered questions of whether the band had claim to a superseding trademark in the image that would allow it, and not the Warhol Foundation, to control the image’s reproduction. The dispute is now over, and those questions will not be judicially resolved.
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Topics: The Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Copyright, The Velvet Underground and Nico, the Velvet Underground
ARCA (Association for Research into Crimes Against Art) has released the Speakers list for next month's Art & Heritage Conference June 21-23 in Amelia, Italy. I will be presenting on the history of World War II restitution litigation in the United States, its effectiveness, and its prospects for the future. The full list is below. Hope to see you there!
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Topics: Carrie Johnson, South Texas College of Law, cultural property, Utrecht University, Stefano Alessandrini, Alesia Koush, Joris Kila, James Moore, Toby Bull, Verity Algar, University of Guelph, Joshua Nelson, Ruth Godthelp, Cynthia Roholt, Saskia Hufnagel, James Bond, Caravaggio, Restitution, University of Reading, Sullivan & Worcester LLP, Events, World War II, Foundation Romualdo Del Bianco, Royal Armouries at the Royal Armouries Museum in L, Judith Harris, Felicity Strong, Amelia, University of Melbourne, University of Amsterdam, Theodosia Latsi, Jerker Rydén, ARCA, University of Cologna, Giulia Mezzi, Nicholas M. O'Donnell, University College London, Royal Library of Sweden, Chris Dobson, Derek Fincham, Art & Heritage Conference, ARTnews
The Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion has published a provocative article that advocates a bold new take on Holocaust art restitution litigation. The thesis of the piece is easily gleaned from its title: “Nazi Looted Art and Cocaine: When Museum Directors Take It, Call the Cops.” In a nutshell, the article argues that if artwork were stolen during World War II, it can never be acquired legitimately thereafter, and its possession is by definition a violation of the National Stolen Property Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2314—or even the Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
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Topics: 18 U.S.C. § 2314, Girolamo Romano, Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue, Bakalar v. Vavra, Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Raymond Dowd, Egon Schiele, ARCA Conference, Portrait of Wally, RICO, Washington Principles, Racketeer-Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, National Stolen Property Act, Copyright Litigation Blog
The United States Copyright Office solicited public comment last year on possible droite de suite, or resale royalty legislation. As addressed previously, state law attempts to regulate artists’ rights to resale royalties have been struck down as unconstitutional. Among the issues that the Copyright Office grappled with is the basic question of incentive: if a copyright royalty were paid on sales subsequent to the first sale, what effect does that have on the economic incentive to create art? Who benefits? Who is harmed?
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Topics: Resale Royalties, Copyright Act, Resale Royalty, Copyright, Copyright Office, Calinfornia Resale Royalty Act
I will be speaking at the 5th annual Art Crime Conference held by ARCA (Association for Research into Crimes Against Art) in Amelia, Italy between June 21-23, 2013. My talk will address Holocaust restitution litigation in the United States, similar to the paper I gave in Maastricht in March but covering important more recent developments as well (notably the Hungary case).
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Topics: cultural property, Vernon Rapley, Charlie Hill, Art Crime Conference, Howard Spiegler, Maastricht, Carabinieri TPC collectively, Association for Research into Crimes Against Art, John Merryman, Neil Brodie, Jason Felch, Larry Rothfield, Dick Drent, Karl von Habsburg, Restitution, World War II, Lord Colin Renfrew, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Paolo Giorgio Ferri, Stuttgart Detective Ernst Schöller, Francesco Rutelli, Amelia, Ralph Frammolino, ARCA, Italy, Norman Palmer, Dr. Joris Kila, Dr. George H. O. Abungu
Two years after a U.S. District Court decision that sent shock waves through the contemporary art world, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed that earlier finding that Richard Prince infringed the copyright of Patrick Cariou. Instead, the appeals court ruled that all but five Prince works at issue were fair use under the Copyright Act, remanding the case to re-analyze those five works. It is as dramatic a win for appropriation art as the lower court decision was a chill on that art.
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Topics: Andy Warhol Foundation, Richard Prince, Copyright Act, Graduation, Second Circuit, Canal Zone, Patrick Cariou, Charlie Company, appropriation art, Meditation, Yes Rasta, Clifford Wallace, Warhol, Cézanne, Copyright, Canal Zone (2008), de Kooning, Picasso, Fair Use, Google, Canal Zone (2007)
The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated the entire set of claims brought by the Herzog heirs against the Hungarian National Gallery, the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Applied Arts, and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The appellate decision focuses on the claim that an agreement was reached after WWII to hold the paintings for their owners, not the claims relating to their wartime fate. In so doing, the court pushed to the side a whole range of defenses for sovereign defendants that have been increasingly successful. The court also reinstated claims to ownership of 11 works whose title was previously litigated, in an opinion that sets a low bar for collateral attacks on foreign judgments.
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Topics: David de Csepel, Nazi Germany, Angela Maria Herzog, Hungary, WWII, Viktor Orban, res judicata, Julia Alice Herzog, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Baron Mor Lipot Herzog, Hungarian National Gallery, Jori Finkel, Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, Adolf Eichmann, FSIA, expropriation exception”, Restitution, 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(2), 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(3), World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Alison Frankel, András Herzog, Janos Lazar, Museum of Applied Arts
After a report from the United States that settlement talks in the civil forfeiture case against the Mask of Ka Nefer Nefer at the St. Louis Art Museum were sufficiently promise to suspend the briefing schedule in the Court of Appeals, the government has advised the court that those talks have failed. The government’s appellate brief is now due June 3, 2013.
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Topics: Mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer, St. Louis Art Museum, Collections, Customs
