Robin Pogrebin at the New York Times has written an excellent piece on the news that the Brooklyn Museum intends to sell several works from its collection to raise money. The museum explicitly relies on the pandemic-inspired announcement in April by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) relaxing its industry guidance (and pausing sanctions) with regard to the proceeds of the sale of art and how the resulting proceeds should or should not be used. The parallel announcement by a Syracuse museum that it intends to sell a Jackson Pollock painting in a manner more consistent with the old rules provides an instructive moment to consider what has really changed in six months of a new era.
Read More
Topics:
The Art Newspaper,
Jackson Pollock,
Deaccessioning,
Boston Globe,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Lucas Cranach the Elder,
New York Times,
AAMD,
Berkshire Museum,
Apollo Magazine,
Brooklyn Museum,
Robin Pogrebin,
Syracuse University,
Anne Pasternak,
Lucretia,
Courbet,
Corot,
Red Composition,
Lisa Simpson,
Donato de’ Bardi,
NY Board of Regents,
Jeff Jacoby,
C. Montgomery Burns,
Royal Academy of Arts
The sprawling saga of the M. Knoedler & Co. Gallery forgery scandal is approaching a full decade since the storied gallery closed abruptly in 2011 (fuller background further below). The last pending civil suit related to the case is now headed for trial in July after the U.S. District Court denied a motion for summary judgment by the gallery’s shareholders that argued that they could not be responsible for the company’s liability. Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the Southern District of New York ruled that there were factual disputes on whether those shareholders indeed could be responsible for alter ego liability that can only be resolved at a trial. The court did award Defendant Michael Hammer summary judgment on the plaintiffs’ fraud, fraudulent concealment, aiding and abetting fraud, aiding and abetting fraudulent concealment, conspiracy to commit fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraudulent concealment, RICO, and RICO conspiracy claims.
Read More
Topics:
Ann Freedman,
Jackson Pollock,
Robert Motherwell,
Southern District of New York,
RICO,
Glafira Rosales,
M. Knoedler & Co.,
Abstract Expressionist,
Gardephe,
piercing the corporate veil,
Monsanto,
Roundup,
Michael Hammer,
8-31,
Knoedler LLC,
alter ego
For more than two years now, the collapse of the M. Knoedler & Co. Gallery in New York amidst allegations of forged paintings by well-known 20th Century artists has sent ripples in all directions: legal, art historical, legislative, and connoisseurship. Several recent developments have drawn focus to the likely litigation fallout among those affected by the scandal.
Read More
Topics:
Andy Warhol Foundation,
Daedalus Foundation,
William K. Rashabaum,
Forgery,
Knoedler,
Ann Freedman,
Wolfgang Belctracchi,
Marco Grassi,
Jackson Pollock,
Robert Motherwell,
Patricia Cohen,
Litigation,
Glafira Rosales,
New York Times,
M. Knoedler & Co.,
connoisseurship,
New York Magazine,
National Public Radio
We’ve been following a number of prominent stories for several weeks now and thinking about what they mean in the crossover between art and the law. It’s fair to say that a theme is starting to develop, namely, that after the Beltracchi forgery trial in Cologne, the Warhol Foundation’s decision to close its doors to authentication requests, and the brewing scandal over the authenticity of paintings sold by Knoedler and other galleries, the legal significance of knowing—and even asking—the age-old question from Art History 101—“who made that?”—has come again to the fore.
Read More
Topics:
Cologne,
Forgery,
Knoedler,
The Art Newspaper,
Inc.,
Degas,
Jackson Pollock,
catalogue raisonné,
Wolfgang Beltracchi,
Collections,
The Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts,
Georgina Adam,
The Art Law Blog,
connoisseurship
