We launched the Art Law Report one year ago tomorrow. Several dozen posts, thousands of visitors and many more views later, a very special thank you to everyone who has read and followed the blog. The connections made literally all around the world are humbling and enlightening. We continue to strive to provide an interesting selection of legal updates and issues, while offering an opinion and perspective that tries to improve the understanding both of those familiar with legal concepts, and those less so. The continuing developments in copyright, FSIA, immunity from seizure, and other resitution issues in particular are certainly keeping us on our toes, and collections issues like the Barnes case are never too far away either. Your links and comments are appriated, and we will keep linking to all those viewpoints from which we are learning too. Here's to another year of substantive conversation.

Casting further doubt on the practical possibility of using the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to recover cultural artifacts, the U.S. Government has at long last weighed in on the Chabad plaintiffs’ request for contempt sanctions against the Russian defendants, defendants who have defied for more than two years a judgment to return the library of the late Menachem Schneerson. Rightly or wrongly, this is another example of the waning utility of the FSIA to seek restitution of works held abroad, and does not bode well for the ongoing embargo by Russian museums against cultural artifact loans to the United States.

The joint panel presentation by Sullivan & Worcester LLP’s Art and Museum Law Group (home of your Art Law Report) and Citi Private Bank next Wednesday, April 11, 2012 in Boston that I was scheduled to moderate with Cornelius J. Murray, III, Trust & Estates Practice Chair, Sullivan & Worcester LLP; Suzanne Gyorgy, Head of Art Advisory & Finance, Citi Private Bank; and Brian Bandler, Director, Wealth Planner, Citi Private Bank has been postponed.

I’ll be at the ALI-ABA Legal Issues in Museum Administration next week in San Francisco March 19-21. I’ve been perusing the coursebooks this morning, and as usual they do not disappoint. It promises to be a fascinating three days as always, and any time in San Francisco is well worth it. If you’ve been reading the Art Law Report and enjoy it, hate it, or have anything else to say about it and you'll be attending the conference, please say hello during the day or at the networking events.

Not sure who I am? I’ll be the one dressed like a lawyer.

I am delighted to announce a joint presentation by Sullivan & Worcester LLP’s Art and Museum Law Group (home of your Art Law Report) and Citi Private Bank. On April 11, 2012 here in Boston we will host a discussion of Art Advisory and Estate Planning. Panelists will include Cornelius J. Murray, III, Trust & Estates Practice Chair, Sullivan & Worcester LLP; Suzanne Gyorgy, Head of Art Advisory & Finance, Citi Private Bank; and Brian Bandler, Director, Wealth Planner, Citi Private Bank. The panelists will address the complex art needs of private clients, including the rules that organizations and donors must understand in order to maximize tax benefits and avoid unintended pitfalls. I will be there to moderate what I expect will be a fascinating discussion.

During the upcoming Ellis Boston Antiques Show, I will be on a panel on Friday night, October 21, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. entitled “Essentials for the New Collector” about collecting antiques and fine art in today’s market. I will be joined by PBS “Antiques Roadshow” appraiser Colleene Fesko and John Fiske, Editor of New England Antiques Journal. The panel is presented by ARIS Title Insurance Corporation.

We are pleased to have you at the first thread of the Art Law Report, a new blog dedicated to the commentary of Nicholas O'Donnell and the Art & Museum Law Group of Sullivan & Worcester LLP. I spent some time in the art historical world before becoming a civil litigator several years ago, and together with my colleagues hope to give fresh perspective to the many legal questions facing the visual arts from many different angles. I hope that our blog will become a resource for you, whatever your relation to the art or legal field.