Steve Chabot (R-OH) has reintroduced the Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification Act (H.R. 4292), after a previous attempt to amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act with regard to the loan of cultural objects failed to become law in 2012. The text of the March 25, 2014 bill is identical to the version that passed… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: March 2014
Call for Papers and 6th Annual ARCA Interdisciplinary Art Crime Conference, June 28-29, 2014
Posted in Events, UncategorizedIt was my great privilege last year to speak at the 5th Annual Art Crime Conference, hosted by the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA). The conference, in Amelia, Italy, annually draws experts in varied fields of law, cultural property, archaeology, law enforcement, and more. It is also held in one of the… Continue Reading
Gurlitt Can’t Get His Story Straight About Salzburg Trove
Posted in Gurlitt Collection, Restitution, World War IIAs confusion swirls around Cornelius Gurlitt’s actual plans, one of the issues is that his team is not speaking consistently with one voice. In particular, there are odd developments about the artworks that Gurlitt himself had removed from his Salzburg home in February—oddities that are worth weighing when considering the recent public statements about his… Continue Reading
Gurlitt Art Return Click-Bait and Switch—Don’t Get Fooled by Headlines
Posted in Gurlitt Collection, Restitution, World War IIIt was hardly surprising that news that Cornelius Gurlitt was willing to return artworks taken from his apartment in 2012 that had once been taken from Jews spread quickly. What is regrettable is how quickly the headlines seem to have gone viral that he is going—or even willing—to return all of the paintings. Nothing that… Continue Reading
Gurlitt “Wants” to Return “All Pictures Stolen or Looted from Jewish Possession”—But Stolen According to Whom?
Posted in Gurlitt Collection, RestitutionChristoph Edel, lawyer and guardian for Cornelius Gurlitt, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung today that his client wants to return “all pictures stolen or looted from Jewish possession.” Although this has set Twitter and the Internet ablaze with the news, the statement deserves careful scrutiny in light of Gurlitt’s strategy over the last two months. The… Continue Reading
Limbach Advisory Commission Recommends Against German Restitution of “Guelph Treasure,” Focuses on Terms of 1929 Agreement for Intended Sale
Posted in Gurlitt Collection, Restitution, World War IIOne of the issues exposed and exacerbated by the ongoing Gurlitt collection stalemate is the question of Germany’s restitution procedures with respect to art. As the Bavarian legislative proposal to abolish the statute of limitations for claims against bad-faith acquirers is considered by the Bundestag, the “German Advisory Commission for the Return of Cultural Property… Continue Reading
Resale Royalties Redux: the “American Royalties Too Act”
Posted in Copyright, Resale RoyaltiesAlthough there are no definitive signs yet of likely change, the question of secondary royalties for visual artists remains far from resolved. The most comprehensive effort to date, the California Resale Royalties Act was declared unconstitutional in 2012 by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in lawsuit brought by Chuck Close… Continue Reading
UPDATE Ninth Circuit Won’t Rehear Denial of Stay for Google in “Innocence of Muslims” Case
Posted in CopyrightJust two days after the parties submitted briefing (including the revelation that Cindy Lee Garcia’s registration request had been rejected by the U.S. Copyright Office) on a Ninth Circuit judge’s sua sponte request for a vote on whether to rehear the denial of a stay of the Court’s February 26, 2014 decision finding a likelihood… Continue Reading
Video Interview: Discussing the Ninth Circuit’s ‘Innocence of Muslims’ Ruling with LXBN TV
Posted in CopyrightFollowing up on my recent coverage of Garcia v. Google, I had the opportunity to discuss the suit with Colin O’Keefe of LXBN. In the brief video interview, I explain the Ninth Circuit’s initial ruling and why it could prove quite impactful.
Cindy Lee Garcia’s Application to Copyright Office to Register Separately Her Performance in “Innocence of Muslims” Was Turned Down
Posted in CopyrightAfter Judge Sydney Thomas advised the parties in Garcia v. Google that a judge of the Ninth Circuit has requested a vote of the full court on Google’s request to stay the recent panel decision finding a likelihood that Cindy Garcia had a separately copyrightable performance in “Innocence of Muslims,” the parties briefed the stay… Continue Reading
Art Law This Week at the City Bar: “Copyright Fair Use: The Importance of Being Transformative” and “Hot Topics in Art Law 2014”
Posted in Authentication, Consignment, Copyright, Fair Use, RestitutionLooking forward to two great art and law events this week at the New York City Bar, both at 42 West 44th Street. Hope to see many of you there! On Tuesday March 11, 2014 from 6:30-8:30 p.m., Judith Prowda, faculty at Sotheby’s Institute and author of Visual Arts and the Law will mediate a… Continue Reading
Ninth Circuit Judge Asks for Panel Vote on Denial of Google’s Request for Stay in “Innocence of Muslims” Copyright Case
Posted in CopyrightAfter last week’s ruling (wrongly decided, in our view) that an actress in “Innocence of Muslims” is likely to prevail on her claim that she had an independently copyrightable performance distinct from the movie itself, anticipation has been high about what might happen next. Google (seeking not to take the video off YouTube) petititoned the… Continue Reading
New York Man Sues Germany For Liebermann Found With Gurlitt, but Allegations Face Real FSIA and Pleading Challenges
Posted in Foreign Sovereign Immunities, Gurlitt CollectionWhen I spoke in Heidelberg in January at the Institute for Jewish Studies conference “Appropriated Art—the Gurlitt Case,” one of the points I stressed in discussing U.S. restitution litigation was that the longer the Gurlitt case went unresolved (and do not be distracted by the “Voice of Russia” article that is being circulated as “Holocaust… Continue Reading
“Innocence of Muslims” Copyright Decision Against Google Could Put Distribution of Nearly Any Movie at Risk
Posted in CopyrightLast year, the Ninth Circuit stood out amongst fair use decisions in its opinion in Seltzter v. Green Day, particularly in contrast to what has persuasively been dubbed the Second Circuit’s “know it when we see it” approach to transformativeness as annunciated in the Cariou v. Prince decision. By contrast, the potentially destabilizing effect of… Continue Reading
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