The ABA Journal has opened voting again on its annual “Blog 100,” a roll of notable legal blogs. I’ve submitted votes for the following blogs (in no particular order), which I have bookmarked and consult regularly. The great thing about blogging, I have found, is the ability it gives the reader (and the blogger) to survey multiple perspectives on a subject. So when resale royalties are under discussion, or fair use, I don’t want to read only articles that I agree with or that take the same approach that I would. I also want to hear something I never would have thought of, and expand the conversation.
ABA Journal Opens Voting on “Blog 100”—Here Are My Votes
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 30, 2015 at 6:34 AM
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Topics: Donn Zaretsky, Paul Howcroft, ABA Journal, Stropheus, Blogs, Judith Prowda, Art Law & More, London, Peter Bert, Fladgate LLP, Richard Lehun, Constantine Cannon LLP, Irina Tarsis, Blog 100, Azmina Jasani, Pierre Valentin, Silberman and Associates, Dispute Resolution in Germany, Art@Law, Boodle Hatfield LLP, Taylor Wessing, Natalia Mikolajczyk, Private Art Investor, The Art Law Blog, Art Law London, Becky Shaw, Tim Maxwell, Center for Art Law, Frankfurt
Did Philadelphia Inadvertently Step on First Amendment and VARA in Painting Over Cosby Mural?
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 28, 2015 at 12:46 PM
Few things have brought consensus recently more than the revulsion over the allegations against comedian Bill Cosby, a Philadelphia native. Yet in a desire to distance itself from Cosby, the city may have crossed a First Amendment line when a well-known mural entitled “Father’s Day” that depicts Cosby was painted over. And even if the city did not run afoul of that constitutional protection, the artist of the mural may have had under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, 17 U.S.C. § 106A (VARA) rights too. Ultimately it will come down to whether the artist or artists object to the fact or the timing of the removal—an objection that would not necessarily be any endorsement or support of Cosby (or have anything at all to do with Cosby), but which might relate more to the right of expression.
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Topics: Philadelphia Inquirer, King Jr., Philadelphia, Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, Martin Luther, VARA, Philadelphia City Mural Arts Program, Temple University, University of Massachusetts, 17 U.S.C. § 106A, Nelson Mandela, Bill Cosby, The Washington Post, First Amendment
Focus of Gardner Investigation Accuses FBI of Entrapment
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 24, 2015 at 7:57 AM
Robert Gentile, whom the FBI has claimed has knowledge of the whereabouts of the paintings stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, has moved to dismiss the indictment against him on firearms possession charges. He argues that the current investigation was manufactured solely to pressure him into cooperating with the Gardner investigation, and is unconstitutional as a result. He faces a tall task, but he has raised a few colorable constitutional issues.
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Topics: Robert Gentile, Gardner Heist, Robert Guarente, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, FBI, Museums
Senate Appropriations Committee Bill Would Give Strong Backing To State Department on Holocaust-Era Assets
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 21, 2015 at 5:20 AM
The United States Senate Appropriations Committee has passed its annual State Department appropriations bill, and it includes a strong instruction on Holocaust-era looted assets. The bill, entitled the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2016 (S. 1725) was accompanied by the Committee’s report, which would direct the State Department to include in an annual report an assessment of U.S. domestic law and foreign countries’ status on their compliance with the Washington Principles and the Terezin Declaration. As the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) observed last year, that progress is mixed, at best. This is a budget bill, meaning it is just the first step in allocating resources for the U.S. government in the year to come (in this case, for the State Department).
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Topics: Legislation, looted property, Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Terezin Declaration, S. 1725, Georg Baselitz, Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscat, 2009 Terezin Declaration, Holocaust, World Jewish Restitution Organization, Department of State Foreign Operations and Related, Report on International Religious Freedoms, 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, WJRO, Restitution, Nazi-looted, Secretary of State, World War II, United States Senate Appropriations Committee, Gerhard Richter, Washington Principles, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germa
Germany Walks Back On Proposed Cultural Property Law
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 16, 2015 at 7:00 AM
After sharp criticism of the proposed strengthening of Germany’s cultural property and heritage protection law, German Minister of Culture Monika Grütters told Die Welt yesterday that she is reevaluating the proposal.
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Topics: Legislation, cultural property, Germany, Bundesländer, Museums, Monika Grütters
Boston Globe Publishes Article on Welfenschatz Case
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 15, 2015 at 11:17 AM
The Boston Globe published a story today entitled “Gift to Hitler spurs a claim for justice" about the Welfenschatz case that I filed for my clients earlier this year.
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Topics: Gurlitt Collection, Hitler, Boston Globe, Restitution, World War II, Welfenschatz
Munich Court Requests Psychological Opinion Concerning Gurlitt’s Competence to Make Will
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 14, 2015 at 5:57 AM
Even as we creep up on the anniversary of the theatrical announcement of an agreement between Bavaria, Germany, and the Kunstmuseum Bern concerning the bequest of Cornelius Gurlitt, the court challenge by Gurlitt’s family is by no means over. News came this week that the Munich court overseeing the appeal of the initial denial of the will challenge has requested an expert opinion concerning Gurlitt’s psychological state.
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Topics: Cornelius Gurlitt, Gurlitt Task Force, Nazi-looted art, Gurlitt Collection, Amtsgericht, Oberlandesgericht, Munich, Restitution, World War II, beschlagnahmte Kunst, Kunstmuseum Bern, Raubkunst
European Cultural Protection Laws and Export Licenses—the Atlantic Gulf Widens
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 10, 2015 at 7:37 AM
Germany has proposed a revision to its cultural protection legislation that would further restrict exports of objects more than 50 years old. While worries that it is the equivalent to state expropriation are overblown, it does indicate a mindset that is in many ways incompatible with the modern art market—even if it is only an effort to harmonize German and EU law. The struggles of Germany’s efforts to keep pace with other centers of art trade may only be compounded if this becomes law.
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Topics: Legislation, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, cultural property, Roman antiquity, Germany, Cultural Protection Laws, England, Joshua Reynolds, European, Rome, 5th Amendment, Bundesländer, Italy, Monika Grütters, regulatory taking
U.S. Museums and Looted Art—Is it Whether you Win or How you Play?
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 9, 2015 at 7:26 AM
A recent report by the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) has made strong criticisms of American museums with respect to their handling of Nazi-looted art claims. In particular, the report criticizes the assertion of timeliness defenses such as statutes of limitations. The report focuses in particular on cases involving the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum at the University of Oklahoma. There is no state control over the vast proportion of art in America the way there is in most European countries, and thus, no possibility of singular, nationalized approaches. In response to the report, some of the museums mentioned have defended their strategies, though in some cases the players are talking past each other. What is undeniable is that whether as a function of the nature of U.S. museums (largely private, rather than public), it is hard to say there is a coordinated approach to the issue, good or bad. The report is lengthy and detailed, and well worth a read in depth that space here does not permit. In some ways, the question it poses boils down to this: is determining the historical truth the obligation of everyone involved or is there some room to prevail without addressing the larger issues?
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Topics: Toledo Museum of Art, Street Scene in Tahiti, Léone Meyer’s, American Association of Museums, Two Nudes, La bérgère, AAMD Task Force on the Spoliation of Art during th, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Rue St. Honoré après-midi êffet de pluie, University of Oklahoma, Cassirer, Nazi-looted art, Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets, Fred Jones Jr. Museum, Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, World Jewish Restitution Organization, WJRO, Association of Art Museum Directors, Restitution, American Alliance of Museums AAM, World War II, Paul Gaugin, Camille Pissarro, Oskar Kokoschka, Museums, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, AAMD, Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena
Museum Denied Exhibition Loan of Byzantine Ivory from British Museum That Should Have Been Permitted
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on July 8, 2015 at 8:08 AM
The Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts, has apparently been told by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service that it will not be receiving the anticipated loan of a Byzantine ivory relief of the Death of the Virgin for the exhibition “Saints and Dragons: Icons from Byzantium to Russia.” This no doubt springs from the new U.S. policy on ivory, but even under that stringent approach, the temporary import for a cultural exhibition should have been permitted. The museum may have recourse, but it has apparently made a backup plan for another object to round out the show. The case still serves as a useful framework to consider the new legal reality. This is also a real shame, because it is the second time in the last few years that the museum (which is an absolute gem, founded privately in 2006 by art collector and industrialist Gordon B. Lankton) has been affected by international contretemps (the first relating to the Russian exhibition loan embargo arising out of the Chabad case).
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Topics: relief, Massachusetts, Saints and Dragons: Icons from Byzantium to Russia, Byzantine, Death of the Virgin, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, ivory, Gordon B. Lankton, 22 U.S.C. § 2459, Museum of Russian Icons, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Sp, Clinton, commercial trade, National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficki, Immunity from Seizure Act, Customs, Chabad
