(Boston, MA, February 26, 2018) Sullivan & Worcester LLP clients and Berkshire Museum members James Hatt, Kristin Hatt, and Elizabeth Weinberg filed today a brief with the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts asking the state’s highest court not to permit the sale of 40 works of art by the Berkshire Museum. The Berkshire Museum filed a petition on February 9, 2018 asking the SJC to permit deviation from the historical restrictions that would prevent such sale. Today the museum member filed a brief as amicus curiae, or “friend of the court.”
Partner Nicholas M. O’Donnell, attorney for the members, said, “My clients are optimistic that the SJC will see through the Berkshire Museum’s petition to deviate from its historical restrictions as unnecessary, and harmful. Such a petition must show that the current state of affairs is impossible or impracticable, and that the requested change is ‘as near as possible’ to the original purpose of the institution. This petition fails to meet either criterion.”
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Topics:
Deaccessioning,
Norman Rockwell,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Pittsfield,
Berkshire Museum,
Shuffleton’s Barbershop
(Boston, MA, January 16, 2018) Sullivan & Worcester LLP has filed its papers in the appeal by its clients, the members of the Berkshire Museum who sued to enjoin the museum’s sale of 40 works of art and sculpture. The appeal was brought as a result of the Berkshire County Superior Court’s November 7, 2017 denial of their request for an injunction, and dismissal of the case. That order denied not only the members’ request, but also a motion by another group that includes Norman Rockwell’s sons and the motion by Attorney General Maura Healey to pause the sale originally scheduled for November 13, 2017 at Sotheby’s in New York—a sale that would have included Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop and other masterpieces.
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Topics:
Norman Rockwell,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Sotheby's,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Pittsfield,
Berkshire Museum,
Zenas Crane,
Hudson River School,
Frederic Edwin Church,
Shuffleton’s Barbershop,
Maura Healey,
Massachusetts Appeals Court
Sullivan & Worcester LLP has filed an appeal on behalf of its clients, the members of the Berkshire Museum who sued to enjoin the museum’s sale of 40 works of art and sculpture. The appeal is brought as a result of the Berkshire County Superior Court’s November 7, 2017 denial of their request for an injunction, and dismissal of the case (before the Appeals Court utlimately enjoined the sale until at least December). That Superior Court order denied not only the members’ request, but also a motion by another group that include Norman Rockwell’s sons and the motion by Attorney General Maura Healey to pause the sale originally scheduled for November 13, 2017 at Sotheby’s in New York—a sale that would have included Rockwell’s Shuffleton’s Barbershop and other masterpieces.
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Topics:
Norman Rockwell,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Sotheby's,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Berkshire Museum,
Zenas Crane,
Shuffleton’s Barbershop,
Attorney General,
Maura Healey,
Berkshire County Superior Court
Forty Masterpieces of American and European Art Scheduled for Auction
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Topics:
Norman Rockwell,
Sullivan & Worcester LLP,
Sotheby's,
Nicholas M. O'Donnell,
Pittsfield,
Zenas Crane,
Trustees of the Berkshire Museum,
Hudson River School,
Frederic Edwin Church,
Pieter de Hooch,
Shuffleton’s Barbershop,
Shaftsbury Blacksmith Shop
Two wonderful museums recently announced plans to sell major works of art. In one case, some 40 paintings, American masterpieces among them, will be sold at auction. In another, more than 400 photographs will also be sold. The former case has prompted a nationwide outcry, the latter…effectively nothing. The differences and similarities between the two underscore the aspirational rules that govern what is known as “deaccessioning,” but also remind us that principles and the goals they are meant to reach are not always the same thing.
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Topics:
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Delaware Museum of Art,
American Alliance of Museums,
Lee Rosenbaum,
MoMA,
Deaccessioning,
AAM,
Norman Rockwell,
Association of Art Museum Directors,
Alexander Calder,
Museum of Fine Arts Boston,
AAMD,
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
Pittsfield,
General Electric,
Waconah Park,
Berkshire Museum,
Housatonic,
Lake Onota,
Frederic Church,
Albert Bierstadt,
Zenas Crane,
Williamstown,
Lenox,
North Adams,
Mass MoCA,
Felix Salmon
A lawsuit has been filed in New Jersey about the authenticity of a painting sold more than 20 years ago that the gallery allegedly represented was a Norman Rockwell (himself a client of my firm long before my time), but which the plaintiff now alleges was not by the American legend. The case underscores the precarious position of authenticators, and the upside of the bill that has been pending in New York for almost a year now.
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Topics:
authentication,
authenticity,
“Mending his Ways”,
Harold Anderson,
Laurence Casper,
Gallery 63 Antiques,
Norman Rockwell,
Mobil Oil,
Galleries,
Isabel Knispel,
U.C.C.,
Barry Knispel,
“Patching Pants”
