As posted at the Art Law Report two weeks ago, a settlement of the IRS dispute over Robert Rauschenberg’s work “Canyon”—which incorporates a stuffed bald eagle, thus implicating criminal statutes prohibiting any sale or transfer of the national bird—has been announced publicly.
Nicholas O'Donnell
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Topics: Bald Eagle, Museum of Modern Art, 16 U.S.C. § 668, Ralph Lerner, 16 U.S.C. § 668a, Canyon, Robert Rauschenberg, IRS, 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, Tax, Ileana Sonnabend
Opposition to Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (a bill the Art Law Report favors in its frequent commentaries) has been renewed recently. Senate Bill 2212 (already passed by the House of Representatives) would remove the mere display of a work of art in the United States as a satisfactory basis to satisfy the commercial activity requirement of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act necessary to sue a foreign sovereign here in the United States.
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Topics: Germany, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Plundered Art, 22 U.S.C. § 2459, Restitution, Senate Bill 2212, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Nikki Georgopulos, Altmann v. Republic of Austria, Immunity from Seizure Act, Nazi theft, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity, Malevich v. City of Amsterdam, Art Law Report
I'll be winging my way to Houston, but otherwise I would be at the New York County Lawyers' Association's 5th Annual Art Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Institute event on Friday, November 16, 2012. Anyone interested should not miss it.
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Topics: Legislation, Renee Vara, Hon. Delissa Ridgway, William Pearlstein, Alexandra Darraby, Cultural Heritage Partners, Hon. Barbara Jaffe, Michael McCullough, Ann Lydecker, Hon. Nicholas Garaufis, Hon. Sherry Klein Heitler, John Cahill, Hon. Kristin Booth Glen, Cook Maran & Associates, Mitchell Silberg & Knupp LLP, Golenbock Eiseman Assor Bell & Peskoe LLP, Chris Robinson, Ralph Lerner, Christine Lepera, Hon. Helen Freedman, Helen Allen, Vara Art, Hon Stephen G. Crane, Kirsten Squires, Marion Werkheiser, L. Eden Burgess, Restitution, Events, Grunfeld Desiderio Lebowitz Silverman Klestadt LLP, Herrick Feinstein LLP, The Art Law Firm, PLLC, Raymond J. Dowd, Dunnington Bartholow & Miller LLP, Darlene Fairman, Cirkers Fine Art Storage & Logistics, Maura Kehoe Collins Artiphile, Art Artifact Architecture & Museum Law, Sharon Levin, James McAndrew, Judith Bresler
At Friday’s outstanding Art Law Day presented by the Appraisers Association of America, among the highlights were talks by Ralph Lerner and Judith Bresler, co-authors of the indispensable Art Law (just published in its fourth edition). As part of a panel on Philanthropy and the Law, Lerner gave a notable update on one of the biggest art law stories of the year, the Sonnabend heirs’ battle with the IRS over Robert Rauschenberg’s collage Canyon.
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Topics: Art Law Day, Ralph Lerner, IRS Art Advisory Panel, Canyon, Robert Rauschenberg, Events, Appraisers Association of America, 1918 Migratory Bird Act, 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, Tax, Ileana Sonnabend, Judith Bresler
The Jenack decision addressed recently at the Art Law Report has been the subject of intense comment and criticism since being widely reported.
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Topics: Donn Zaretsky, New York General Obligations Law § 5-701, Appellate Division, New York Court of Appeals, Jonathan Olsoff, Jo Laird, Christie's, Statute of Frauds, William J. Jenack, Sotheby's, Art Law Report
The Hans Sachs collection that the Bundesgerichtshof in Karlsruhe ordered in March be returned to the Sachs heirs will be put up for auction in New York. The collection had more than 12,000 posters by artist that included Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Ludwig Hohlwein, Lucian Bernhard and Jules Cheret. The Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, a museum of German history, held for several decades parts of a poster collection was seized from Sachs in 1938. After his arrest and incarceration, Sachs fled the country with his family.
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Topics: Berlin, Lucian Bernhard, Guernsey’s Auctioneers & Brokers, Catherine Hickley, Hans Sachs, Bloomberg, Bundesgerichtshof, Ludwig Hohlwein, Restitution, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Karlsruhe, World War II, Arlan Ettinger, Deutsches Historisches Museum, New York
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has dismissed—for a second time—a lawsuit filed there by former attorney Edward Fagan seeking the restitution of various works of art in the National Gallery in Prague and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. A novel strategy of bringing the case not by the alleged heirs, but rather by a former lawyer in cooperation with those alleged heirs, was rejected by the court on its own initiative.
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Topics: Czechoslovakia, Restitution, World War II, Czech Republic
Please see our most recent client advisory from the Art & Museum Law Group at Sullivan & Worcester LLP. The advisory addresses recent statutory changes to and judicial interpretation of the law governing sales on consignment, including auctions in particular.
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Topics: consignment, Sullivan & Worcester LLP
For those of us trying to follow art law developments in Germany, particularly to get access to original source and court documents in German, Peter Bert’s Dispute Resolution in Germany Blog is a terrific source. Between the Hans Sachs collection case and the contuing fallout from the Wolfgang Beltracchi forgery scandal and the fictional “Jägers Collection,” Germany has had a busy year of art law prominence, particularly with regard to forgery issues. Two recent posts bear reading, both of which attach the original court opinions in German, for their interesting analysis.
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Topics: Forgery, Lempertz, Peter Bert, Germany, Hans Sachs, Wolfgang Beltracchi, Dispute Resolution in Germany, Copyright
Although this week's Restitution and Repatriation conference at DePaul was washed out by Hurricane Sandy, another terrific event is on the horizon next week. "Art Law Day" at New York University, hosted by the Appraisers Association of America, will be held on November 9, 2012 at NYU's Kimmel Center. The condensed schedule from the event's website is below. Wishing everyone in New York continued safety, we hope to see you there.
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Topics: Yuri Yanchyshyn, AAA, John Cahill, Donn Zaretzky, Inc., Art Law Day, Jane C. H. Jacob, ARIS, Ralph Lerner, Appraisal, Events, Elizabeth von Habsburg, Jacob Fine Art, Appraisers Association of America, Restitution and Repatriation, IFAR, Kimmel Center, connoisseurship, Winston Art Group, Gloria Velandia, Sharon Flescher, Judith Bresler
