The New York Times has stepped into the fray in reviewing the New York Court of Appeals's decision to review the Rabizadeh/Jenack appeal concerning the application of New York's Statute of Frauds to compel disclosure of a consignment seller at auction. The article zeroes in on the potential impacts to the ways in which auction houses do business. I am quoted in the article and the Art Law Report is referenced on the topic of mandatory disclosure.
Nicholas O'Donnell
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Topics: New York General Obligations Law § 5-701, Auctions, Collections, Statute of Frauds, Albert Rabizadeh, William J. Jenack, New York Times, Nicholas M. O'Donnell, Art Law Report
There is a new development in the decision last fall in which the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court ruled that an auctioneer must disclose the name of any owner who has consigned the work for sale, or a sale against a successful bidder cannot be enforced consistent with New York General Obligations law § 5-701, the New York Statute of Frauds. After the adverse decision, the William J. Jenack auction house petitioned the Court of Appeals for leave to appeal (in New York, as in many states, one can only appeal to the highest court with that court’s permission).
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Topics: consignment, New York General Obligations Law § 5-701, New York Court of Appeals, Statute of Frauds, Albert Rabizadeh, William J. Jenack
Despite refusing to participate in a lawsuit for nearly three years since a judgment that ordered the return to the Chabad Lubavitch movement in Brooklyn of the late Rebbe Menachem Schneerson’s library, the Russian Federation swiftly spoke up when news came of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s order yesterday sanctioning and fining the defendants $50,000 per day until they comply with the 2010 judgment. The Washington Post reports today that the U.S. government has declined to comment.
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Topics: cultural property, Menachem Schneerson, Russian Foreign Ministry, sanctions, Restitution, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Chabad
In a case that has tested the principles of how a defiant sovereign defendant can be compelled to comply with a court order, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has taken an emphatic step in an order issued today. The Russian Federation, the Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications, the Russian State Library, and the Russian State Military Archive will be fined collectively $50,000 per day until they comply with a 2010 judgment to return the library of Menachem Schneerson, the late charismatic leader of the worldwide Chabad Lubavitch movement, to the movement in Brooklyn, New York. Whereas the court lacked any power to compel the seizure of the library itself overseas, the plaintiffs will now be armed with a very real financial bludgeon against the defendants that have thumbed their noses at the U.S. courts for more than three years. In any case where the defendant refuses to obey a court order that court has a wide array of tools to compel compliance, but this case has been an awkward example of the limits on a court of law faced with an uncooperative party overseas. Particularly where the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1603 (the FSIA) was the basis for jurisdiction, as it is in so many wartime art restitution cases, and the fact that the 2010 judgment led to a still-ongoing embargo of art and cultural artifact loans to the United States, the decision is a significant one for the realm of art law.
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Topics: cultural property, Lativa, Menachem Schneerson, Germany, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Rebbe, 28 U.S.C. § 1603, Bolshevik, the Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communica, Russian Federation, the Russian State Library, FSIA, Restitution, the Russian State Military Archive, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Agudas Chasei Chabad, Poland, Russian Revolution, Soviet Union, Immunity from Seizure Act
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has decided a copyright case that addresses the important elements of what constitutes an expressive work capable of protection. The lines of what can be protected in news photography may not be as simple as the First Circuit opinion suggests.
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Topics: Harney v. Sony Pictures Television, Barack Obama, Eric McCormack, Clark Rockefeller, Shepard Fairey, Christian Gerhartsreiter, Copyright, Hope, Who is Clark Rockefeller
Senate Bill 2212, previously passed by the House of Representatives, seemed to be gathering steam as 2012 came to a close. In November and December bipartisan sponsors were signing on, with no publicly-known opposition as it waited for a Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing.
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Topics: House Resolution 4086, 113th Congress, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 112th Congress, Restitution, Senate Bill 2212, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Immunity from Seizure Act, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
I will be in Maastricht, the Netherlands, on March 24-25, 2013 at the Art and Heritage Law Conference to present my forthcoming paper to be published in the Special Issue of Transnational Dispute Management, “Art and Heritage Disputes.” The paper (and my presentation) will re-assess the effectiveness of American litigation in the last 15 years seeking restitution of art stolen during World War II.
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Topics: Maastricht, Restitution, Events, the Netherlands, World War II, Transnational Dispute Management, Art and Heritage Disputes
Bi-partisan momentum appears to be gathering for Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (a bill that would clarify an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act in respect to the loan of cultural artifacts). After Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) signed on as a co-sponsor on November 27, 2012, others have followed. In addition to its original co-sponsors Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the bill has since gained the co-sponsorship of John Cornyn (R-TX) on December 3, 2012; Thomas Coburn (R-OK) on December 11, 2012; and Chris Coons (D-DE) on December 12, 2012.
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Topics: Legislation, Dianne Feinstein, Thomas Coburn, Chris Coons, Restitution, Orrin Hatch, Senate Bill 2212, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, S.B. 2212, Charles Schumer, John Cornyn, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
A complaint filed against the Metropolitan Museum of Art over its admissions fee policy is gaining widespread coverage. Although the headlines center on the plaintiffs’ allegations of fraud, Theodore Grunewald and Patricia Nicholson (the two plaintiffs) also put forward several other legal theories.
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Topics: Theodore Grunewald, General Obligations Law § 349, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Patricia Nicholson, Central Park, fraud, Litigation, Museums, Admissions Fee
The federal register this week noted the addition on November 27, 2012 of Charles Schumer, New York’s senior Senator, as a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act, the proposed amendment to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act that would exempt from the FSIA the loan of certain cultural objects as a basis to invoke U.S. federal court jurisdiction. The bill has already been passed by the House of Representatives. After passage in march and referral to the Senate Judiciary Committee (on which it should be noted, Schumer sits), their has been no news of the bill’s progress.
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Topics: Legislation, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immun, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, FSIA, Senate Bill 2212, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Charles Schumer, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity, Art Law Report
