In July, sculptor David Ascalon filed suit with the U.S. district court in Pennsylvania, against the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg ("Federation") for violation of the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 ("VARA"). With true artistic flair, Ascalon alleges the Federation turned his Holocaust memorial sculpture into a "mutilation and bastardization of the artwork and its purpose."
 Continue Reading Destruction or Restoration? Sculptor Claims a Violation of Moral Right

In August, 2009, the Ninth Circuit decided en banc by 9-2 that a California resident Claude Cassirer can sue Spain to recover his grandmother’s oil painting "Rue Saint-Honore, apres-midi, effet de pluie," painted by the French impressionist Camille Pissarro and taken by the Nazi government. (Cassirer v. Kingdom of Spain, 2010 U.S. App. 2010 WL 3169570 (9th Cir. 2010).)  The court rejected Spain’s defense, holding that the defendants cannot claim a sovereign immunity from suit in the U.S. under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act ("FSIA").
 Continue Reading Grandma Robbed by Nazis – Grandson Sues Spain to Recover Stolen Paintings

Beware of "fortune cookies" for advice, even when it’s not the kind you crack, read, and eat. Just ask Najung Seung, who claims that Mary Dinaburg, a partner at gallery Fortune Cookie Projects, duped her into buying a Julian Schnabel painting entitled Chinkzee for a price three times its market value.  Initially, Seung paid Dinaburg $118,000 for a John Wesley painting entitled Bulls and Bed, only to discover that Dinaburg had sold the painting to someone else.  Rather than returning the payment, Dinaburg offered Seung a $200,000 credit towards the purchase of Chinkzee at the "gallery" price of $380,000, and further represented the painting was worth at least $500,000.  But Seung soon learned that Chinkzee had been sold months earlier at an auction for $156,000 based on an estimate price range of only $60,000 to $80,000, and that the market value was no more than $110,000.  As a result, Seung filed suit against Fortune Cookie Projects, seeking the return of her money based on fraud, negligent misrepresentation, promissory estoppel, and unjust enrichment.
 Continue Reading Court Says Don’t Rely on Fortune Cookie for Art Valuation

For over 200 years, $500 million in gold and silver cargo sat undisturbed on a seabed off the coast of Portugal. Then, in May of 2007, Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration announced the discovery of a vast treasure at an undisclosed location it called "the Black Swan." Within weeks, Spanish officials identified the Swan as the Spanish colonial-era galleon "Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes," declared her treasure to be the rightful property of the Spanish people, and demanded that Odyssey reveal its secret location. Now, two centuries after British cannon fire left the Mercedes "breaking like an egg, dumping her yolk into the deep," the Spanish warship has found herself at the center of another battle—exposing the fragile relationship between maritime law and cultural heritage protections.
 Continue Reading Does Finders-Keepers Bring Piracy to New Depths?

Last year’s Presidential election was historic on many accounts. Both campaigns saw an unprecedented turnout, as Americans from all walks of life came out in record numbers in support to their candidate of choice. Controversial artist Shepard Fairey, whose work includes "street art, commercial art and design, as well as fine art seen in galleries and museums all over the world,” was one of these Americans. (Complaint, Fairey v. The Associated Press, 09-cv-01123, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, at ¶ 9).  Fairey’s "Hope" and "Progress" posters depicting President Barack Obama became symbols of the Obama campaign and its grassroots support. The image became a familiar sight on the morning commute, adorning cars’ bumpers and back windows. A special version of the poster was created for President Obama’s inauguration and another version of Fairey’s Obama work now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.
 Continue Reading Fairey’s Use

Indiana Jones, quite possibly the most famous treasure-plundering, antiquity-hoarding fictional archeologist of our time, has a way of making the process of art reclamation or, depending on one’s perspective, appropriation, look grand.  Indy, usually covered with grime, soot, debris and a perfect layer of five-o-clock shadow, dodges boulders, bullets and brutes armed with bows and arrows as he swashbuckles through exotic locales in search of his next great treasure.  Of course, real life is never as grand and, despite the ongoing presence of evildoers, intrepid seekers are usually stopped dead in their tracks by much less ominous forces than bullets or giant rocks.Continue Reading Where There is a Will, Is There a Way?