Art dealers are in an uproar over Bakalar v. Vavra, a case involving a work by Egon Schiele that was stolen from Viennese cabaret performer commenced in the spring of 2005 in the Southern District of New York. The case is featured in this month's Art Newspaper here. My firm represents the heirs of Fritz Grunbaum.
Dealer Richard Nagy won't say how many Schieles he has that came from the collection of Fritz Grunbaum. For more information on art stolen from Fritz Grunbaum and the dealers and museums that have refused to assist the heirs in tracking the artworks or being truthful about their collections, please visit Art Stolen from Fritz Grunbaum.
Fans of the Portrait of Wally case will remember that D.A. Robert Morgenthau seized Fritz Grunbaum's Dead City at the same time that Portrait of Wally was seized at the MoMA in 1998. Although Portrait of Wally has gotten tremendous media attention, Dead City's fate received little media attention, aside from an excellent article by Bill Cohan in Art News.
www.dunnington.com
Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here
Monday, May 14, 2012
Saturday, March 03, 2012
Art Law - How To Avoid Forgeries When Buying Fine Art
Please check out Paul Sullivan’s column Wealth Matters titled How to Avoid Forgeries When Buying Fine Art in today’s New York Times, link below:
For those with an interest in art law, I will be speaking at a panel on March 9 at The Armory Show 2012. Christie’sFine Art Storage Services (CFASS) presents The Complexities Surrounding Authentication. With the recent disbanding of high-profile authentication committees, the market is forced to react. This panel explores the process of authentication, both from a scientific and emperical perspective, and why authentication has become such a litigious topic that often results in committee termination.
Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here
Panelists include:
-Dr. Magdalena Dabrowski, Independent Scholar/Curator and Art Consultant.
-Raymond Dowd, Partner, Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP
-Dorit Strauss, Vice President, Worldwide Specialty Fine Art Manager, Chubb Group of Insurance
-Jennifer L. Mass, Ph.D. Senior Scientist, Winterthur Museum
Moderated by Joseph Stasko, International Managing Director, Christie’s Fine Art StorageServices.
Friday, March 9th, 2012, 3:30pm.
More information on The Armory Show 2012 programming here.
www.dunnington.comPurchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here
Friday, February 03, 2012
Hydrofracking Filmmaker Critical of Halliburton Arrested Trying To Protect NYC Drinking Water
Hyrdrofracking video embedded above
Filmmaker Josh Fox, creator of Gasland, was arrested while trying to film Congressional hearings on hydrofracking. According to media accounts, Republican lawmakers lawlessly threw him out.
Hydrofracking is a toxic, pollutive process graphically illustrated in Gasland used to smash shale to release methane gas. The problem is, methane gas pollutes drinking water - to the point it is so toxic you can't touch it and it will actually catch on fire. Halliburton has so far kept the toxic cocktail of pollutants that it uses secret, with Congress's blessing.
Thirty-four states have soiled themselves in this way, and New York State is now poised, with President Obama's and Governor Cuomo's support, to destroy our water supply.
As Gasland explains, under the Bush Administration, VP Cheney got hydrofracking exempted from the Safe Water Act.
Currently, the EPA is not monitoring the safety of our drinking water - what traditionally was the EPA's core mission.
Gasland is probably the most important film I have seen in a decade.
Video of Josh Fox being arrested here.
Buy Gasland here.
Sign antihydrofracking petition here (text below)
we petition the obama administration to:
Protect communities from the negative impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and natural gas drilling.
Rapid development of fracking has overwhelmed communities with negative impacts: drinking water contamination, intense industrialization of farm and forest lands (with loss of habitat), polluted streams, heavy truck traffic and accidents on rural roads, even earthquakes from deep well injection of wastewater.
Hailed as an abundant bridge energy supply, shale gas drilling was exempted from provisions of major environmental laws, while we now know the supply is much less than previously thought.
We ask the Administration to protect our drinking water by restoring the protections of the Safe Drinking Water Act to natural gas drilling, to eliminate all other exemptions fracking enjoys, to prohibit drilling in national parks and highly sensitive lands and tightly restrict export of shale gas.
www.dunnington.com
Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Research Works Act - HR 3699 - Stealing From the Public Domain?
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Golan v. Holder last week, bills like the Research Works Act, which is designed to restrict access and limit sharing of scientific data, become more ominous. More on the Research Works Act from Wikipedia here. The full text below.
Congressman Darrell Issa and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney are co-sponsors.
Richard Poynder's take here and here. The American Association of Publishers is behind this apparently legislation.
www.dunnington.com
Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here
Congressman Darrell Issa and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney are co-sponsors.
Richard Poynder's take here and here. The American Association of Publishers is behind this apparently legislation.
112th CONGRESS
To ensure the continued publication and integrity of peer-reviewed research works by the private sector.
Mr. ISSA (for himself and Mrs. MALONEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
To ensure the continued publication and integrity of peer-reviewed research works by the private sector.
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON FEDERAL AGENCY ACTION.
No Federal agency may adopt, implement, maintain, continue, or otherwise engage in any policy, program, or other activity that--
(1) causes, permits, or authorizes network dissemination of any private-sector research work without the prior consent of the publisher of such work; or
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) AUTHOR- The term ‘author’ means a person who writes a private-sector research work. Such term does not include an officer or employee of the United States Government acting in the regular course of his or her duties.
(2) NETWORK DISSEMINATION- The term ‘network dissemination’ means distributing, making available, or otherwise offering or disseminating a private-sector research work through the Internet or by a closed, limited, or other digital or electronic network or arrangement.
(3) PRIVATE-SECTOR RESEARCH WORK- The term ‘private-sector research work’ means an article intended to be published in a scholarly or scientific publication, or any version of such an article, that is not a work of the United States Government (as defined in section 101 of title 17, United States Code), describing or interpreting research funded in whole or in part by a Federal agency and to which a commercial or nonprofit publisher has made or has entered into an arrangement to make a value-added contribution, including peer review or editing. Such term does not include progress reports or raw data outputs routinely required to be created for and submitted directly to a funding agency in the course of research.
www.dunnington.com
Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here
Monday, January 23, 2012
Murder, Mystery and Egon Schiele's Dead City February 8 at Jewish Federation of San Antonio
Thanks to the Federal Bar Association and the Jewish Federation of San Antonio, I will be speaking at the Jewish Federation of San Antonio on February 8 about Egon Schiele's Dead City and the mystery and litigation that it has spawned since District Attorney Robert Morgenthau seized it in 1998 at the Museum of Modern Art.
The MoMA's possession and concealment of artworks stolen from Holocaust survivors has come under fire recently, check out William Cohan's MoMA's Problematic Provenances in December ArtNews here.
For more stolen art by Egon Schiele at the MoMA visit Art Stolen from Fritz Grunbaum.
For the latest brief filed last week in Bakalar v. Vavra, an appeal to the Second Circuit arguing that the District Court's application of the laches doctrine to award a stolen drawing to a Massachusetts art collector, see the embedded document below.
11-4042-Cv Appellant's Brief and Special Appendix
www.dunnington.com
Purchase Copyright Litigation Handbook 2011 by Raymond J. Dowd from West here
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