Reflecting on the recent argument by the Detroit Institute of Arts that the city of Detroit cannot legally sell, let alone be forced to sell, the artwork in the museum to satisfy creditor, some overlapping terminology creates the possibility of an important confusion. Particularly in the realm of deaccessioning, this distinctions are quite important. Meanwhile, the state of Michigan today approved its part of the “Grand Bargain” to subsidize the bankruptcy to avoid sale or encumbrance of the artwork.
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Topics:
Donn Zaretsky,
Roberta Smith,
Rose Art Museum,
Lee Rosenbaum,
Columbia University,
Deaccessioning,
Detroit Institute of Arts,
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Michigan,
Albright-Knox Gallery,
New York Times,
Detroit Bankruptcy,
AAMD,
Edward Hopper,
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
grand bargain,
Brandeis University,
Barnes Foundation
As we reported last week, the U.S. District Court dismissed claims against the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art, the University of Oklahoma, and associated Oklahoma defendants, over title to the Camille Pissarro painting La bergère rentrent des moutons (a case in which I represented the David Findlay Jr. Gallery).
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Topics:
David Findlay Jr. Inc.,
due process,
third party beneficiary,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Raoul Meyer,
Nazi Occupation,
American Alliance of Museums,
University of Oklahoma,
Aaron and Clara Weitzenhofer,
Judge Colleen McMahon,
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art,
AAM,
Vichy,
La bergère rentrent des moutons,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Restitution,
David Findlay Galleries,
World War II,
CPLR 301,
Switzerland,
Leone Meyer,
long art statute,
Camille Pissarro,
Museums,
personal jurisdiction,
AAMD,
Christoph Bernoulli,
Swiss judgment
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed the much-publicized claims by Leone Meyer against the University of Oklahoma and related Oklahoma public officials and insitutions for the return of La bergère rentrent des moutons by Camille Pissarro, currently in the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art. In full disclosure: I represented David Findlay, Jr., Inc. in the action, who was dismissed from the action last year by agreement.
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Topics:
David Findlay Jr. Inc.,
due process,
third party beneficiary,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Raoul Meyer,
Nazi Occupation,
American Alliance of Museums,
University of Oklahoma,
Aaron and Clara Weitzenhofer,
Judge Colleen McMahon,
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art,
AAM,
Vichy,
La bergère rentrent des moutons,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Restitution,
David Findlay Galleries,
World War II,
CPLR 301,
Switzerland,
Leone Meyer,
long art statute,
Camille Pissarro,
personal jurisdiction,
AAMD,
Christoph Bernoulli,
Swiss judgment
The Holocaust Art Restitution Project reports today that a new version of Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act that would have amended the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to preclude claims against defendants whose “commercial activity” is limited to the loan of artwork whose ownership is in dispute, but which are immunized from seizure pursuant to the Immunity from Seizure Act (22 U.S.C. § 2459). The Art Law Report covered the bill extensively last year. Although the bill as previously passed would have exempted Holocaust claims from the exception, the bill in broad terms was designed to prevent another Malevich v. City of Amsterdam situation, in which the very loan of a painting immunized from seizure was itself held to satisfy the commercial activity jurisdictional requirements of the FSIA.
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Topics:
Holocaust Art Restitution Project,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
22 U.S.C. § 2459,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Immunity from Seizure Act,
Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
An important qualifier to the discussion about deaccessioning and the Detroit Institute of Arts is that although DIA is a subdivision of the bankruptcy debtor (Detroit), that debtor is not any old commercial entity. Rather, Detroit is a municipality, and municipal and state debtors are governed by slightly different rules than private parties.
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Topics:
Legislation,
Donn Zaretsky,
Deaccession,
Chapter 9,
11 U.S.C. § 904,
Public Trust,
Attorney General of Michigan,
Detroit,
Detroit Institute of Arts,
Bankruptcy,
Collections,
Bankruptcy Code,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Bill Schuette,
Detroit Emergency City Manager,
Kevyn Orr,
Museums,
Detroit Bankruptcy,
AAMD
The recent filing by the City of Detroit for bankruptcy—the largest such municipal filing in history—has brought with it an unexpected art law twist. Namely: to what extent can, or should the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts be used to satisfy the city’s creditors. As one might expect, the differences between what the city can do, what it should do, and what others can do to influence that decision have become hard to distinguish as the volume is raised. A review of some of the issues involved and the governing principles is in order. As rumors of the city’s bankruptcy circulated, speculation began about what would happen to the collection of DIA. And thus the dreaded “deaccession” debate began. This debate is essentially as follows: is art a fungible commodity that can and/or should be used in whatever way advances the mission of the institution (including selling it and using the proceeds to finance the museum’s operations), or do museums hold art in a public trust that must prioritize the collection and display of art? The latter view certainly holds sway among many in the museum community as an aspirational mattter, but its enforceability is often far less than they think.
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Topics:
National Academy Museum,
Brandeis,
Deaccession,
American Alliance of Museums,
Rose Art Museum,
AAM,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Detroit Institute of Arts,
Collections,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Motor City,
and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston,
Cleveland Museum of Art,
Detroit Bankruptcy,
AAMD,
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Is it time to invoke the Corollary to Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies (i.e., as a discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler increases, and once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically the argument ) concerning Senate Bill 2212, the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act?
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Topics:
Legislation,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Restitution,
Senate Bill 2212,
World War II,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Immunity from Seizure Act,
Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity,
National Public Radio
After several months of inactivity, the first brief is available in the Richard Prince appeal of the judgment against him and the Gagosian Gallery earlier this year for infringing on the works of Patrick Cariou. Prince’s arguments of “fair use” of Cariou’s photographs failed to persuade the District Court and the infringing works were ordered impounded, a harsh and unusual remedy.
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Topics:
Richard Prince,
Canal Zone,
Patrick Cariou,
Dada,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Copyright,
Gagosian Gallery,
Fair Use,
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
