I was proud to advise the Allentown Art Museum, which announced today that it has reached an agreement with the heirs of Henry and Hertha Bromberg concerning Portrait of George, Duke of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder and...more
I attended today’s press conference at District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr.’s office in Manhattan at which a drawing by Egon Schiele, Seated Nude Woman, Front View, was transferred to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum. I represent...more
Inherited art can be sentimental, beautiful, and valuable, but it can sometimes feel overwhelming. Depending on your personal situation, you have several options: you can keep and preserve the artwork, donate it to charity,...more
I was honored to be among the speakers this week at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on March 5, 2024. Convened by the World Jewish Restitution Organization and the U.S. State Department, the event announced the...more
Many taxpayers have art collections. However, the art collections of some high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and business taxpayers may draw the unwanted eye of the IRS. With the increased focus on auditing...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled on January 9, 2024 that the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation in Madrid is the owner of Rue Saint–Honoré, après-midi, effect de pluie (1892) by Camille Pissarro, a...more
A trial court in Indiana recently dismissed a lawsuit challenging the proposed sale of three works of art by Valparaiso University: Rust Red Hills by Georgia O’Keefe, Mountain Landscape by Frederic Edwin Church, and The...more
No, this isn’t a Halloween-themed piece about the infamous Cleveland Torso Murderer from the 1930s, but an issue that is less sensational but far more contemporary — the quest to return looted art to its rightful owners....more
In 1966, an ancient bronze bust found its way to the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. Believed to depict the daughter of the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, it was titled “Portrait of a Lady (A Daughter of Marcus...more
A 4-foot tall, bronze girl defiantly stands with her hands on her hips and chin held high. Better known as Fearless Girl, the statue was intended to promote the power of women in leadership. The statue has come also to...more
(Germany’s highest court issued a much-anticipated ruling on a challenge by a collector to the listing of his painting in the so-called Lost Art database in Magdeburg, Germany. The Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) ruled that the...more
The Supreme Court of the United States has issued its long-awaited ruling in the dispute between photographer Lynn Goldsmith and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (AWFVA) on May 18, 2023. The Court held the...more
The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s decision, holding that the first factor in the fair use analysis favored photographer Lynn Goldsmith because the “purpose and...more
For the first time in almost 20 years, the United States Supreme Court has issued a ruling that has prompted vigorous debate over the future of the fair use doctrine under the Copyright Act. On May 18, 2023, in Andy Warhol...more
On May 18, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 43-page majority opinion in the case of Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, No. 21-869, 598 U.S. Facts. The facts of the case center around...more
With the continuing advancements of cutting-edge technologies — such as genome editing (CRISPR) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) — U.S. courts will have a full docket of challenging IP cases throughout 2023. Below are some of...more
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed into law a new requirement requiring museums to indicate publicly any object in their collection that was displaced by the Nazis as part of what Congress has rightly called the...more
For too many patients, medicine now revolves around two things: pills and procedures. But since humanity’s earliest times, those treating the sick and injured often have turned to more human sources for help in healing: art,...more
In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court has brought to a close an 83-year quest by the family of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany to recover a stolen painting....more
On April 21, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Cassirer et al. v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, No. 20-1566, holding that federal courts hearing state-law claims under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently granted a petition for writ of certiorari to review the extent to which a work of art is a “transformative” fair use under the Copyright Act. The Court will review a Second Circuit decision...more
When Christie’s Auction House first entered the secondary art market of mainland China in 2005, it licensed its brand to a local auction house and received a total of RMB 97,000,000 (roughly $12,100,000) for its inaugural...more
In 2018, Steven Thaler filed an application to register a copyright for a computer-generated image created autonomously by a computer algorithm, the “Creativity Machine”. (We previously wrote about Mr. Thaler’s unsuccessful...more
After a two-year hiatus, the Responsible Art Market Initiative is planning a return to its in-person annual conference at the end of this month in Geneva. For anyone who has attended RAM events or used its catalogue of...more
Today I am pleased to announce that I have filed a brief in the Supreme Court of the United States as counsel of record for amicus curiae Mark B. Feldman, former U.S. Department of State Acting Legal Adviser. We filed the...more