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
The German government has released an initial list of twenty five works among the collection seized from the Munich (Schwabing) apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, the most significant discovery of possibly looted art since the end of World War II. The list is posted at www.lostart.de, a hitherto little-known website of the Coordination Point for Cultural Losses (Die Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste ) in Magdeburg, which administers claims for cultural losses against the German state. The website has been overwhelmed with traffic (I have yet to load the page successfully), sparking fresh criticism of the government’s handling of the issue, but giving credit where due, the Merkel government has moved swiftly to begin these disclosures. As we predicted, the national government simply could not allow this question to fester and be stonewalled; earlier this week foreign minister Guido Westerwelle noted the risk that delay posed to “trust that we have built over many decades” after World War II. The question now will be whether it continues in a comprehensive way until the full list is released.
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Topics:
Thinking Woman,
Playing Piano,
Carl Spitzweg,
The Master Exploder Hantsch,
Hildebrand Gurlitt,
Cornelius Gurlitt,
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza,
Honoré Daumier,
Christoph Voll,
Dompteuse,
Hans Christoph,
Girl at Table,
Holocaust Art Restitution Project,
Guido Westerwelle,
Max Liebermann,
Antonio Canaletto,
Eugène Delacroix,
Tram,
Nazi-looted art,
Gurlitt Collection,
Allegory/Allegorical Scene,
View of the Seine Valley,
Moorish Conversation on a Terrace,
Otto Dix,
Erich Fraass,
Die Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste,
Wilhelm Lachnit,
Entartete Kunst,
Couple,
Marc Chagall,
Study of a Woman Nude Standing Arms Raised Hands C,
Auguste Rodin,
Seated Woman/Woman Sitting in Armchair,
Child at Table,
Magdeburg,
Bonaventura Genelli,
Patricia Cohen,
Restitution,
Fritz Maskos,
Veiled Woman,
Male Portrait,
Female nude,
Der Spiegel,
World War II,
degenerate art,
Mother and Child,
Couple in a Landscape,
Ludwig Godenschweg,
Théodore Rousseau,
www.lostart.de,
Otto Griebel,
New York Times,
Coordination Point for Cultural Losses,
Bernhard Kretschmar,
Riders on the Beach,
Monk,
S.A Giustina in Prà della Vale,
Kunstfund München,
Male Nude,
Henri Matisse,
Conrad Felixmüller,
Woman in the Theater Box,
Man and Woman in the Window
A last reminder that on Monday, there will be a panel discusion at Columbia Law School entited "Selling the Museum's Collection: Is Deaccessioning Ever Appropriate?" From the event description:
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Topics:
Donn Zaretsky,
Roberta Smith,
Deaccession,
Pollock-Krasner Foundation,
Cornell University,
Graham W. J. Beal,
Richard Levin,
Frank Robinson,
Pippa Loengard,
the Art Law Report,
Events,
Selling the Museum's Collection: Is Deaccessioning,
Williams College Museum of Art,
Nicholas O'Donnell,
Rhode Island School of Design,
New York Times,
Detroit Bankruptcy,
Samuel Sachs II,
Detroit Institute of Art
A reminder that two weeks from Monday, I will join a panel discusion at Columbia Law School entited "Selling the Museum's Collection: Is Deaccessioning Ever Appropriate?" From the event description:
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Topics:
Donn Zaretsky,
Roberta Smith,
Deaccession,
Pippa Loengard,
Detroit Institute of Arts,
the Art Law Report,
Events,
Columbia Law School,
Nicholas O'Donnell,
New York Times
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.
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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
I will be on a panel at the Center for Law and the Arts at Columbia Law School on Monday, October 28, 2013 discussing deaccessioning issues. Details are yet to come, but co-panelists will include Donn Zaretsky of John Silberman Associates (and writer of the Art Law Blog), and Roberta Smith of the New York Times. The event is scheduled for lunch. The panelists have quite different views of the issue, and it promises to be a lively and well-informed discussion.
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Topics:
Donn Zaretsky,
Roberta Smith,
Columbia Law School,
Center for Law and the Arts,
New York Times
The New York Times has stepped into the fray in reviewing the New York Court of Appeals's decision to review the Rabizadeh/Jenack appeal concerning the application of New York's Statute of Frauds to compel disclosure of a consignment seller at auction. The article zeroes in on the potential impacts to the ways in which auction houses do business. I am quoted in the article and the Art Law Report is referenced on the topic of mandatory disclosure.
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Topics:
New York General Obligations Law § 5-701,
Auctions,
Collections,
Statute of Frauds,
Albert Rabizadeh,
William J. Jenack,
New York Times,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Art Law Report
Doreen Carvajal of the New York Times this week addressed Senate Bill 2212, (the “Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act”) this week, a bill approved in March by the House of Representatives.
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Topics:
Legislation,
Russian art embargo,
Nazi stolen art,
Russia,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,
22 U.S.C. § 2459,
Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue,
Collections,
FSIA,
Restitution,
World War II,
IFSA,
Foreign Sovereign Immunities,
Portrait of Wally,
Immunity from Seizure Act,
New York Times,
Chabad,
Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity
