FAIR USE?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled on February 25, 2010 in Gaylord v U.S. that a postage stamp infringed a sculptor's copyright in the Korean War Memorial.

Read Peter Friedman express his disappointment and find a link to the decision here: http://blogs.geniocity.com/friedman/2010/02/the-korean-war-memorial-postage-stamp-photo-case-i-was-way-wrong/

The Aesthetics of the Contract and the Contract of Aesthetics” by LMCC

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is hosting a series of presentations that may be of interest. In particular, at the NYCBA on Friday, March 5 at 6:30pm, curator/lawyer Daniel McClean will speak on “The Aesthetics of the Contract and the Contract of Aesthetics” ("how Post-Conceptual artists use the medium of the contract to create artworks, and how lawyers create contracts and the role that aesthetics might play in their construction and interpretation").

Reservations required; details here: http://www.lmcc.net/cultural_programs/access_restricted

Art in the Time of Chaos: Soviet Propaganda Art v. Nonconformist Art

On Feb. 22, 2010, Cardozo hosted a Russian art (law) event with Mark Kelner, Washington D.C.-based art dealer and curator, specialist in post-War Russian art. The presentation centered around the history of subversive Russian art, censorship in the Soviet Union and modern Russia, and the current-day legal issues associated with forgeries and theft of these works.

The event was organized in conjunction with the Russian Propoganda Posters on loan from the Collection of Aimée Brown Price and Monroe Price (on display at the Dr. Lillian and Dr. Rebecca Chutick Law Library now through April 2010, ).

For more information, see
http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/MemberContentDisplay.aspx?ccmd=ContentEdit&ucmd=UserDisplay&userid=170&contentid=14212&folderid=2676

THE BIG EVENT: Google, Technology and the Future of the Music Industry

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Art Law & IP Law Societies proudly present

Panel Discussion on

Google, Technology and the Future of the Music Industry

Featuring

Jim Griffin & Prof. Frank Pasquale

Moderated By

Prof. Felix Wu

Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Moot Court Room

The discussion will focus on the future of the music industry in the United States. How should content be paid for, and what are the ramifications of technological advancements? How will these technologies affect the music publishing, licensing, and copyright industries? We will explore the role that Google plays as th...e ‘worlds’ information bank’, and the possibility of new technologies playing more than a subsidiary role in this game given the outcome of the Google Books Settlement. What models are available to us and where are we heading?

A Reception Will Follow.

Insider Job -- Theft in Hôtel Drouot, the central Paris auction venue

Two high-profile art thefts in France over the Christmas holidays brought the illegal trafficking of cultural treasures to the world’s attention.

In the first, the Impressionist painter Edgar Degas’s The Choir Singers was stolen from The Cantini Museum in Marseilles. The delicate pastel, with an estimated value of €800,000, had simply been unscrewed from the gallery wall on New Year’s Eve.

In the second, occurring just days later, some 30 paintings were stolen from a private collector’s home on the French Riviera, including pieces by Henri Rousseau and Pablo Picasso. The entire haul was worth somewhere in the neighbourhood of €1 million.

These crimes are hardly isolated incidents. An auctioneer and eight agents from the well-respected Paris auction house, Drouot, were recently charged with “organized theft” after a stolen painting by Gustave Courbet was discovered in the Drouot warehouse, and hundreds of French churches and historic châteaux have been targeted by thieves for their highly prized cultural treasures.

Read more:
http://www.themarknews.com/articles/876-the-art-of-crime

http://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/7432.aspx

New Cultural Heritage & the Arts Interest Group

The first panel with ASIL will be held on March 26, 2010, 2:30-4:00PM at the ASIL Annual Meeting at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington DC. The panel will be entitled "Wrestling the Dead Hand of History: Perspectives on a Proposed State Department Commission on Nazi Looted Art" with Ambassador J. Christian Kennedy, Stuart Eizenstat, Lucille Roussin and Charles Goldstein, moderated by Jennifer Kreder. Full panel details and bios are below.

Read More

Early bird registration discounts end January 29. The Annual Meeting will take place March 24-27, 2010, in Washington, DC. See www.asil.org/am10 for details.

We would also like to call for submissions to the Interest Group newsletter, which we hope to have published before the Annual Meeting. Submissions on any topic in art and cultural heritage law are welcome and should range between 500-2500 words. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2010.

Please feel free to contact us if you would like to get more involved with the Interest Group. We are also looking for regular contributors and editors for the newsletter,

Cristian DeFrancia & Jennifer Kreder
Co-Chairs, ASIL Interest Group on Cultural Heritage & the Arts http://www.asil.org/interest-groups-view.cfm?groupid=60

March 26, 2010 Panel Description:

Wrestling the Dead Hand of History: Perspectives on a Proposed State Department Commission on Nazi Looted Art

The Nazis stole more art than any regime in history, targeting Jewish-owners and even planning to construct a museum in Linz, Austria, Hitler?s birthplace, to rival the Louvre. Some of that art was auctioned in the infamous Jew-auctions now universally regarded as illegal, but much was funneled into the black market often with the proceeds paid into blocked accounts owners never could access. It is estimated that 100,000 or more art objects looted by Nazis or sold under Nazi duress continue to circulate in the market. Claims to art displaced during the Holocaust exploded in 1998, leading to the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets hosted by the United States. In June 2009, the Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague resulted in the Terezín Declaration re-emphasizing the Washington Conference Principles. Yet significant disagreement still exists as costly litigation continues to be filed, involving sixty years of evidence, different limitations periods, and the laws of multiple nations. Recently, the State Department Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, J. Christian Kennedy, has conducted a series of Town Hall Meetings to get the views of interested individuals and organizations on the establishment of a U.S. commission on cultural materials displaced during World War II. This panel will explore the pros and cons of establishing a commission to deal with Holocaust-looted artwork and how such a commission should be structured.

Time & Place
Friday, March 26, 2:30-4:00PM, The Ritz Carlton, 1150 22nd Street, NW, Washington, DC

Speakers

• Ambassador J. Christian Kennedy, U.S. Department of State, Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues
• Stuart E. Eizenstat, Head of U.S. Delegation to the Prague Holocaust Era Assets Conferences
• Professor Lucille Roussin, Founder and Director, Holocaust Restitution Claims Practicum, Cardozo School of Law
• Charles A. Goldstein, Counsel, Herrick, Feinstein, LLP

Moderator:
Professor Jennifer Anglim Kreder, Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University

See www.asil.org/am10 for details.

Guggenheim Settles With Malevich Heirs

An untitled painting by Kazimir Malevich.The foundation that runs the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum said on Monday that it had reached an agreement with the heirs of the artist Kazimir Malevich over the ownership of an untitled work by him that the museum plans to include in an exhibition this month. In a joint news release, the foundation and the heirs of Malevich, the Russian Suprematist, said they had reached "an amicable settlement" over an oil painting on canvas made by the artist around 1916, which was acquired by Peggy Guggenheim in 1942 and has been part of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. The painting is one of about 70 Malevich works that were presented at an exhibition in Berlin in 1927, during which the artist was called back to the Soviet Union and entrusted the works to several friends. Malevich died in 1935 and his work was subsequently banned by the Nazis, but his paintings, drawings and other art have since become part of the collections of museums and private owners, setting the stage for efforts by his heirs to reclaim ownership of these works.

The Guggenheim, which will show the untitled painting in an exhibition called "Malevich in Focus: 1912–1922," said in a statement that the terms of the settlement were confidential. A representative of the Malevich heirs said in a statement that the family "is gratified that this matter has been resolved in a way that acknowledges Malevich's legacy and his contributions to the history of 20th-century art and keeps his artwork on public display."


From/By DAVE ITZKOFF, NY Tims Feb. 8, 2010

Google book scanning: Cultural theft or freedom of information?

I don't know about you, but I like Google Books. Recent article on the topic, reads in part,

London, England (CNN) -- A proposed partnership between the French government and Google is stoking fears in France that the country's literary treasures will fall under commercial control of a U.S. technology company.

Frederic Mitterand, the French minister of culture, has said that Google came to France with "the attitude of a conqueror" signing "unacceptable" and "one-sided" deals.

He told Le Monde newspaper that the deals involved "excessive confidentiality, impossible exclusivity and casual --even leonine --clauses on copyright."

Read the full article, http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/08/google.livres.france/index.html

Grosz heirs vs MoMA case dismissed

"LONDON. A judge in New York has dismissed the case made by the heirs of George Grosz, who claimed that three paintings by the German artist in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) were taken and traded during the 1930s, making them Nazi loot, albeit indirectly. On 6 January, the judge, John McMahon, dismissed the challenge to the museum’s ownership of Portrait of the Poet Max Hermann-Neisse (with Cognac Glass), 1927, Self-portrait with a Model, 1928, and Republican Automatons, 1920, on the grounds of the three-year statute of limitations. The estate first asked the museum to hand over the paintings in November 2003, but did not commence its lawsuit until April 2009. MoMA rejected the claim that the paintings, which it acquired between 1946 and 1954, were ever Nazi loot, after researching their complex history (The Art Newspaper, November 2009, p13)."


http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Grosz-heirs-vs-MoMA-case-dismissed/20127

"Art of the Steal"

Here's the trailer for "Art of the Steal," an upcoming doc (opening Feb. 26) about the legal issues/controversies/conspiracies surrounding the Barnes Foundation, one of the most impressive Impressionist collections in the world:



Looks more nail-biting than any Grisham-based legal thriller on screen. Perhaps this is just another case of life imitating art...