Consistent with expectations after reports from the court hearing in March, the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles dismissed the case brought by artist Chuck Close and others that alleged violations of the California Resale Royalty Act (the “CRRA”) by Sotheby’s, Christie’s and eBay, and ruled that the CRRA is unconstitutional in its entirety. Similar claims against eBay were also dismissed in a shorter opinion referencing the Sotheby’s and Christie’s decision.
California Law Struck Down as Unconstitutional: U.S. District Court Dismisses California Resale Royalty Act Case against Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and eBay
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on May 18, 2012 at 5:08 AM
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Topics: Legislation, Resale Royalties, Chuck Close, Commerce Clause, Christie's, Dormant Commerce Clause, Collections, California Resale Royalty Act, Copyright, Sotheby's, eBay
Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act: House Votes to Amend FSIA to Exclude Artwork Loan as Basis for Jurisdiction
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on March 22, 2012 at 9:15 AM
The House of Representatives approved the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act on March 19, 2012, to remove the display of a work of art in the United States as basis to sue a foreign sovereign here. The law touches on important distinctions between immunity from suit—when a party cannot be sued at all—from immunity from seizure—when a particular object or asset cannot be seized.
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Topics: Legislation, Immunity from Seizure, FSIA, Restitution, Senate Bill 2212, World War II, Foreign Sovereign Immunities, House of Representatives, Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity, State Department
California Resale Royalty Act Case Against Sotheby's, Christie's, and eBay to Be Dismissed?
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on March 14, 2012 at 5:11 AM
Donn Zaretsky at the Art Law Blog (whose prior commentary on the case gives excellent analysis of the Commerce Clause and other issues) reports that the U.S. District Court issued a tentative ruling at a hearing on Monday to dismiss the California Resale Royalty Act cases against Sotheby's, Christie's and eBay (Chuck Close is one of the plaintiffs). No written order has come down, but we will report and analyze when it does. This is big news; for the moment the case docket indicates only that the hearing took place and that the judge took the matter under advisement.
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Topics: Legislation, Donn Zaretsky, Resale Royalties, Chuck Close, Christie's, Dormant Commerce Clause, Collections, Sotheby's, eBay
Federal Legislation Proposed for Artists' Resale Royalties
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on December 22, 2011 at 11:08 AM
In place of rumored legislative efforts last summer, legislation has been formally introduced to codify under U.S. federal law droite de suite rights of resale for artists, under certain circumstances.
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Topics: Legislation, Resale Royalties, droite de suite, Resale Royalty, Jerrold Nadler, Christie's, California Resale Royalty Act, Sotheby's, eBay
Christie’s and Sotheby’s Sued over California Resale Rights
Posted by
Nicholas O'Donnell on October 20, 2011 at 5:56 AM
Christie’s and Sotheby’s were sued this week by several artists (including Chuck Close) as class action plaintiffs, alleging violations of California’s Resale Royalty Act. The Resale Royalty Act is one of the few statutes in the United States recognizing artists’ rights to some of the proceeds of the sale of their works, even after the initial sale, a concept known as droite de suite. As noted by the Art Law Report last month, there have been noises at the federal level about reviving droite de suite as it is used in Europe, but to date little concrete change has materialized. A useful definition of the idea can be found, with some irony, at the Christie’s website.
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Topics: Legislation, Chuck Close, Christie's, Collections, droit de suite, California Resale Royalty Act, Sotheby's
Picking up a torch last carried by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, lobbying efforts are underway to enact into U.S. federal law a droit de suite right enjoyed in the U.K. and elsewhere, that is, a right for an artist to be compensated upon subsequent sales of his or her work. American law has long resisted the concept of secondary market compensation for artists, and Kennedy’s efforts to write droite de suite into American law failed in the course of the enactment of the Visual Artists Rights Act in 1987. European nations have struggled to quantify the effect of inconsistent droite de suite legislation; some argue that the piecemeal regime has simply pushed sales into countries without it, others note that U.K. art sales have continued to rise.
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Topics: Legislation, Resale Royalties, Visual Artists Rights Act, droit de suite, Copyright
