I am pleased to be among distinguished colleagues and practitioners presenting a CLE at the New York City Bar Association on November 2, 2017. Entitled “Off the Wall: Legal Issues Involving Street Art,” the panel will cover some of the hot button legal issues affecting the art world today, and this year’s program will center around the legal issues involving street art. This program is intended for those who practice art law, litigation, copyright, and trademark law, as well as those with clients in the art, fashion, advertising, and real estate industries.
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Topics:
New York City Bar Association,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Dean Nicyper,
Steven R. Schindler,
Beryl Jones-Woodin,
Amelia K. Brankov,
Off the Wall: Legal Issues Involving Street Art
For several years the topic of
litigation against appraisers and authenticators has been a controversial issue, causing a number of artists’ foundations and independent professionals to refrain from giving opinions for fear of litigation, even in which they eventually prevail. A new lawsuit against the Agnes Martin Authentication Committee underscores the importance of a pending bill in New York to shield such authenticators from liability, and the problems inherent in the status quo. This lawsuit appears likely headed for failure just like every other similar authentication lawsuit, but that will come as cold comfort to the defendants years hence.
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Topics:
authentication,
catalogue raisonné,
Alexander Calder,
Keith Haring Foundation,
New York City Bar Association,
connoisseurship,
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts,
Mayor Gallery Ltd,
Agnes Martin,
Peter Doig
Last week the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association hosted a terrific two-hour event. Entitled “Rethinking Art Authentication,” the discussion aimed to address a way forward from the problems of fakes, forgeries, and authentication lawsuits that have plagued the art market in recent years. It was a lively and fascinating evening.
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Topics:
Karl Waldmann,
Ceroni,
Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute,
Leonardo da Vinci,
Cady Noland,
Knoedler,
New York Assembly,
Catalogue raisonée,
authentication,
Dean R. Nicyper,
New York University,
Colette Loll,
Blue Room,
Dan Flavin,
Dada,
Visual Artists Rights Act,
Rick Johnson,
Rethinking Art Authentication,
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduct,
Jennifer L. Mass,
Art Law Committee,
Trial Lawyers Association,
Beltracchi,
Events,
La Bella Principessa,
Hyperspectral imaging,
Gerhard Richter,
New York City Bar Association,
Cornell Tech,
Rijksmuseum,
Cowboys Milking,
Andy Warhol,
Picasso,
New York Senate,
Walter Benjamin,
Elmyr de Hory,
Withers Bergman LLP,
Amadeo Modigliani,
Amy M. Adler
Registration is now available for an upcoming event about which we posted previously: The Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association’s “Rethinking Art Authentication” on December 2, 2015 at the City Bar's headquarters at 42 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues).
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Topics:
Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute,
Dean R. Nicyper,
New York University,
Colette Loll,
Rick Johnson,
Jennifer L. Mass,
Art Law Committee,
Events,
New York City Bar Association,
Cornell Tech,
Rijksmuseum,
Withers Bergman LLP,
Amy M. Adler
The Art Law Committee (of which I am a member) of the New York City Bar Association is holding a fascinating evening event on December 2, 2015 at the City Bar's headquarters at 42 West 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues). Entitled “Rethinking Art Authentication,” the program will address issues that readers here will find familiar and yet challenging: the ongoing struggle against fakes and forgeries in the art market. From the flyer:
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Topics:
Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute,
authentication,
Dean R. Nicyper,
New York University,
Colette Loll,
Rick Johnson,
Jennifer L. Mass,
Art Law Committee,
Events,
New York City Bar Association,
Cornell Tech,
Rijksmuseum,
Withers Bergman LLP,
Amy M. Adler
As we reported back in February, the State Assembly and Senate are considering parallel versions of an amendment to the New York Arts & Cultural Affairs Law that would enhance protections for art authenticators by raising the burden of proof and providing for prevailing-party attorneys’ fees. Our view was, and remains, that the law would be an improvement on the status quo because it would protect the player that often has the least upside in an authentication but who may find herself the target of the disappointed party’s wrath.
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Topics:
Donn Zaretsky,
Andy Warhol Foundation,
Art in America,
Daniel Grant,
New York State Assembly,
authentication,
Tracy Zwick,
American Rule,
Bill No. A09016,
Art Law Day,
New York Observer,
clear and convincing evidence,
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
The New York Senate Standing Committee on Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation has unanimously endorsed Senate Bill No. S06794. The Committee was no doubt moved by yesterday’s sought-after Art Law Report endorsement. . . .
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Topics:
Andy Warhol Foundation,
New York State Assembly,
authentication,
Bill No. A09016,
clear and convincing evidence,
Appraisal,
Wolfgang Beltracchi,
Art Law Committee,
Keith Haring Foundation,
New York Arts and Cultural Affairs Law,
New York City Bar Association,
authenticator,
M. Knoedler & Co.,
Senate Bill No. S06794
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
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
