Ansel Adams Publishing Trust v. Norsigian -- Legal Circus disputing Adams 'Performance'

On August 23, 2010, The Ansel Adams Publishing Trust, which controls the licensing rights to Adams’s work, filed a federal trademark infringement suit in San Francisco as part of an effort to block the sale of prints by Rick Norsigian, a painter in a school maintenance department, who bought the negatives 10 years ago for $45 at a garage sale in Fresno.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in San Francisco by The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, seeks to stop Rick Norsigian and consulting firm PRS Media Partners from using Adams' name, likeness and trademark in their efforts to sell prints and posters not authorized or endorsed by the Trust.

The suit alleges trademark infringement, false advertising, trademark dilution, unfair competition and other claims. It does not specify damages but asks the court to order the defendants to pay restitution of their profits from any sales, as well as award any other monetary relief.

"Mr. Adams was fond of likening a negative to a composer's score and the prints to its performance — each performance differs in subtle ways," the lawsuit said. "The photographic prints and posters offered for sale by defendants ... are not an Ansel Adams 'performance.' "

The suit says the defendants are improperly and unlawfully trading on Adams trademark and deliberately confusing consumers.

Norsigian's lawyer, Arnold Peter, said the lawsuit has no merit and is designed to harass his client and "silence this debate."

For more, read: http://artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=40195;
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/ansel-adams-trust-sues-over-lost-work/

Van Gogh Painting Stolen in Cairo

Egypt's Minister of Culture reported that a Van Gogh painting estimated worth $50 million was stolen from a Cairo museum on Saturday.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/arts/design/23arts-VANGOGHPAINT_BRF.html?_r=1

They did WHAT? -- Rurik Dynasty Lawsuit Forces Russia to Prove Kremlin Ownership

On Aug. 17, 2010, Bloomberg's Anastasia Ustinova reported that " A Moscow court gave the government a month to prove it owns the Kremlin, after descendents of the
country’s founding dynasty sued for the right to use the
property that their forefathers built and inhabited.
The Moscow Arbitration Court yesterday ordered the Federal
Property Management Agency and Culture Ministry to submit their
legal claims to the Kremlin to the descendants of Rurik, the
Varangian prince who founded Kievan Rus in the 9th century,
according to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official state newspaper.
The suit was filed by the Princes Foundation, which
represents dozens of the known descendents of Rurik, who began a
dynasty that ruled until 1598. The 15 years between the last
Rurik and first Romanov tsar are known as the Time of Troubles.
“We demand the right to hold meetings inside the Kremlin
and look after the historic property,” said Valery Kubarev,
head of the Princes Foundation, by phone today. “This is a
question of historical justice,” Kubarev said.
The Kremlin complex was built over several centuries, with
Ivan the Great completing the wall encircling the 28-hectare
(69-acre) complex on the Moscow River more than 500 years ago.
The United Nations included the landmark on its World Heritage
List together with the adjacent Red Square in 1990.
The Russian Federation inherited the Kremlin after the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and it serves as the
official residence of the president, though no official
ownership title has ever been registered. Part of the
government’s defense is that the UN recognizes the Kremlin as
state property, Rossiyskaya Gazeta said.
“I want the address registered in my passport to say,
‘Kremlin, Moscow,’” Kubarev, 47, said. “The Ruriks have always
helped spur spiritual and cultural development in Russia, so the
dynasty needs to be registered in the heart of this country.”
Kubarev describes himself on his website as an entrepreneur,
writer and “history consultant” to Russia’s parliament.
The Kremlin’s press service declined to comment on the
lawsuit immediately, as did the Property Management Agency and
the Culture Ministry. The next hearing in the case is scheduled
for Oct. 18."

New York officials sue Christie's to regain British architect's drawings

On August 12, the Guardian ran a brief note about a $1M lawsuit lodged at the New York Supreme Court against Christie's, auction house. Parties to the suit disagree over ownership of architectural drawings executed by Jacob Wrey Mould, a British architect and city planner.

For the complete story, read: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/12/new-york-architect-drawings-mould

Just Another Art Restitution Case? Think again

Spain may have achieved ultimate glory at this summer's FIFA World Cup, but ended up on the losing end of a landmark Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA) and art restitution decision out in the 9th Circuit.

The Federal Court of Appeals issued an en banc opinion on Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza yesterday. The basic facts are (unfortunately) common: a German-Jewish art collector acquired a beautiful piece of art (in this case Pissarro's Rue Saint-Honoré, après-midi, effet de pluie) at the turn of the 20th Century where it remained within the family for 40 years. In the 1930s it was seized by German authorities under the program of "Arynaization" when the family attempted to flee Germany. After the war, the painting changed hands numerous times and eventually ended up in a state-sponsored museum in Spain. The heir to the original collector sued Spain and the museum.

What is indeed quite novel about the opinion was the decision's allowing for the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act's Takings Exception to apply even though the foreign sovereign being sued (in this case Spain) was not the expropriator of the property. And this comes despite recent federal court hindrances to the FSIA Takings Exception (see Vatican Bank (9th Cir. 2005), Freund v. Republic of France (SDNY 2008))! For greater analysis check out this blog.

Opinion on taking American Indian artifacts

Another Sentenced In 4 Corners Artifacts Case
PAUL FOY, Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) ¯ A Utah man who once bragged about taking American Indian artifacts from federal lands avoided jail time Thursday after a federal judge said he decided to show leniency after reading letters from the man's two daughters.

U.S. District Judge Dee Benson said he planned to give Aubry Patterson, 57, prison time but changed his mind after reading the letters, which said Patterson was an "amazing father" who had a hard life but always "provided for us and put food on the table." Patterson's teary daughters accompanied him to court.

Benson instead gave Patterson three years of probation, waiving guidelines that called for more than a year in prison.

Source: http://cbs4denver. com/wireapnewsco /Another. defendant. sentenced. 2.1845360.html

Another Odyssey Decisions from FL courts

ODYSSEY MARINE EXPLORATION, INC., Plaintiff,
v.
UNIDENTIFIED, WRECKED, AND ABANDONED SAILING VESSEL, Defendant.

Case No. 8:08-cv-1044-T-23MAP.
United States District Court, M.D. Florida, Tampa Division.

July 30, 2010.
ORDER

STEVEN D. MERRYDAY, District Judge.

The plaintiff, Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., recovers artifacts from sunken wrecks. In this case, the plaintiff seeks title to artifacts recovered from Le Marquis Tournay, a French vessel that sank in the English Channel in the late eighteenth century. (Doc. 28 at 2) The plaintiff believes that English privateers owned Le Marquis Tournay at the time of the ship's demise. (Doc. 28 at 2) The wreck, which includes cannon and other valuable artifacts, rests on the floor of the English Channel, at less than 200 meters beneath the surface, and within a five-nautical-mile radius from centerpoint coordinates 49° 46' N., 3° 31' W. (Doc. 1 at 2; Doc. 28-1 at 2) The wreck lies "beyond the territorial waters or contiguous zone of any sovereign nation." (Doc. 1 at 2)

The plaintiff tendered a brick from the wreck as evidence of "symbolic possession," the clerk issued a warrant of arrest in rem, and the plaintiff published notice of the find in The Tampa Tribune and The Times of London. (Doc. 28 at 2) The published notice identifies the wreck as Le Marquis Tournay but withholds the location of the wreck. (Doc. 17) The clerk entered a default on June 30, 2009. (Doc. 21) The plaintiff moved (Doc. 23) for default judgment, and a December 30, 2009, order (Doc. 24) denies the motion for failure to include the coordinates of the wreck. A February 11, 2010, order (Doc. 26) denies the plaintiff's motion to submit the wreck's coordinates under seal.

The plaintiff renews the motion for default judgment and seeks "title and ownership in the artifacts it has recovered, and those it will recover, from the defendant wreck site." (Doc. 28 at 7) The motion asserts that the plaintiff recovered from the wreck a shard of glass, a ship's bell, and a piece of sheething. (Doc. 28 Ex. B) Although the motion includes a blurry picture of a fourth artifact, no description accompanies the picture. (Doc. 28 Ex. B)

Read the opinion in full: http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14370154943645901322&hl=en&lr=lang_en&as_sdt=20000000002&as_vis=1&oi=scholaralrt&ct=alrt&cd=0

I was in the Royal Court of Justice in July . . .

Wanted: government work of art legs it from UK's supreme court

Web only -- Published online 30 Jul 10

The UK's Government Art Collection has suffered the misfortune to have had one of its works stolen or lost in the Royal Courts of Justice, in London's Strand. In response to a Parliamentary Question this month, tourism and heritage minister John Penrose admitted that the work had been on loan there and was recorded missing during an inventory check on 10 April. It was an engraving of Henry Powle (1630-92), Master of the Rolls, based on a portrait by Godfrey Kneller. The framed print was valued at just £100. Although very modest in artistic terms, one might have expected it to have been safe in the high-security Royal Courts of Justice, the country's Supreme Court...

Source: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Wanted:-government-work-of-art-legs-it-from-UK%27s-supreme-court/21286

Kustodiev's Odalisque under review

Russian Tycoon Viktor Vekselberg is set to sue Christie's over a painting he alleges is a fake. As reported by The Telegraph, Vekselberg (net worth:$6.4 billion) bought the painting, “Odalisque” by Boris Kustodiev, in 2005 for $2.6 million. A year later, Aurora Fine Arts, an investment vehicle belonging to Vekselberg, contacted Christie's asking for the money back, plus damages. It sited the findings of a top Russian expert who claimed that the billionaire's Odalisque “belongs to the brush of an unknown artist and represents a deliberate reproduction of a favorite Kustodiev theme.”

A Christie's spokesperson told us the following about the Vekselberg situation: "We take very seriously any suggestion surrounding the authenticity of a work of art sold by Christie's. The painting was only returned to us in November last year. Investigations we have undertaken since then have reinforced our attribution. As our research is not yet complete we consider the issue of legal proceedings premature. However, given that Aurora has chosen to issue proceedings before allowing us the opportunity to complete our investigations, we have no option but to defend them."

Read more about it:

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35332/oligarch-vikselberg-plans-suit-against-christies-over-alleged-forgery/
http://blogs.forbes.com/billions/2010/07/19/christies-is-getting-sued-again/