It was first reported at the Appraisers Association of America’s Art Law Day in November, 2013 that the New York City Bar Association’s Art Law Committee had drafted a proposed revision to New York’s Art and Cultural Affairs Law to address the rights of authenticators. That proposal, publicized a month later, has now become an actual bill introduced in the New York State Assembly, as Senate Bill No. S06794 and Assembly Bill No. A09016. The bills were then referred to their respective committees for further deliberation. 
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Topics: Andy Warhol Foundation, New York State Assembly, authentication, American Rule, Bill No. A09016, Art Law Day, clear and convincing evidence, Appraisal, Wolfgang Beltracchi, Art Law Committee, Chagall Committee, Appraisers Association of America, Keith Haring Foundation, New York Arts and Cultural Affairs Law, New York City Bar Association, authenticator, M. Knoedler & Co., Chagall, Senate Bill No. S06794
Looking forward to two great art and law events this week at the New York City Bar, both at 42 West 44th Street. Hope to see many of you there!
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Topics: consignment, Cariou v. Prince, Judith A. Bresler, The Importance of Being Transformative, Copyright Fair Use, P.C., Judith Prowda, authentication, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Dean R. Nicyper, Howard N. Spiegler, Authenticity Issues and Recent Developments, Stacy Lefkowitz, Has Transformative Use Gone Too Far?, Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, Google Books, The Law Applicable to Art Consignments, Garcia v. Google, Restitution, Dale Cendali, Pamela Samuelson, Copyright, Cowan Liebowitz & Latman, Visual Arts and the Law, Berkeley Law School, Judge Denny Chin, Sotheby’s Institute, Fair Use, Richard Dannay, Art Repatriation and Restitution
Judge Leonie Brinkema will hold a hearing tomorrow morning in Alexandria, Virginia on the Baltimore Museum of Art's motion for summary judgment to claim ownership to an 1879 Renoir painting Paysage Bords de Seine that the museum maintains was stolen in 1951. Claimant Martha Fuqua filed a motion to strike the BMA's reply to her opposition, arguing that the museum was introducing new evidence. The court swiftly denied the motion, and noted that the museum was responding to arguments she made for the first time in her opposition to the summary judgment motion (but gave her permission to file a sur-reply).
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Topics: hearsay, authentication, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Potomack Company, flea market Renoir, ancient documents, Der Spiegel, Martha Fuqua, Baltimore Museum of Art, Litigation, business records exception, summary judgment, Museums, Paysage Bords de Seine, FRCP 56
The last remaining claimants for the 1879 painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paysage bords de Seine that surfaced in the possession of a woman who claimed to have found it at a flea market, have filed summary judgment papers seeking final disposition of the case without need of a trial. The Baltimore Museum of Art has made its case that the painting was stolen from the museum in 1951, while Martha Fuqua alleges that she purchased it in good faith at a Virginia flea market in 2009 before attempting to sell it at the Potomack Company. The U.S. government seized the painting from the auction house and filed an interpleader action to determine the true owner; the other principle claimant (Fireman’s Fund Insurance) dropped out of the case last fall without explanation, apparently pursuant to an assignment. Heirs of the original donor to the BMA never responded or made claim to the painting. The case will now turn at summary judgment on the hearsay rule, a topic that have bedeviled generations of law students and lawyers.
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Topics: hearsay, authentication, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Potomack Company, flea market Renoir, ancient documents, Gurlitt, Martha Fuqua, Baltimore Museum of Art, Litigation, business records exception, summary judgment, Museums, Paysage Bords de Seine, FRCP 56
At Friday's Art Law Day at the annual meeting of the Appraisers Association of America, Judith Bresler gave the keynote address on the topic of the complications created by prosective liability for authentication experts. As prominent cases ranging from the Knoedler forgeries to the decision by the Warhol Foundation and others to cease authenticating works have shown, the opinion of experts as to whether a work of art is indeed by a particular artist is a recurring and important issue. Not only do transactions worth tens of millions of dollars rest on that authentication, absent a robust exchange of opinions about authorship, frauds and forgeries are actually encouraged. As it stands, many qualified authenticators and experts have simply judged that giving an opinion is too great a risk to facing a defamation, fraud, or negligence claim, on which they will usually prevail but only after great expense. As Bresler said, “when authenticators are afraid to practice their profession, it has a far reaching effect.”
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Topics: Legislation, Knoedler, authentication, Knoedler forgeries, Warhol Foundation, Art Law Day, Appraisal, Appraisers Association of America, New York City Bar Association, Judith Bresler
