2017 (Jan-Jun) Archives

Archive: 2017 (Jan-Jun)

New York Court Dismisses Claims Against Agnes Martin Authentification Committee

19/06/2018

On 5 April 2018, a New York State court dismissed a complaint filed by the Mayor Gallery, a London-based art dealer, against Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné LLC (“AMCR”), Arnold Glimcher, the managing member of AMCR’s authentification committee and the owner of the Pace Gallery, Tiffany Bell, the catalogue’s editor, and other members of AMCR’s authentification committee for their refusal to include 13 artworks purportedly by Agnes Martin in the artist’s Catalogue Raisonné. The complaint sought more than $7 million in

The Regulation of the Art Trade for Anti-Money Laundering in the EU

28/06/2017

Certain types of businesses fall within the regulated sector for EU anti-money laundering, such as banks, wider financial institutions, law firms, accountancy businesses and estate agents. Luckily for the British art market, the British government has not invited auction houses and art/antique dealers to join the club. Auction houses and art/antique dealers in other EU Member States have not been so lucky. Being in the regulated sector for money laundering carries a compliance burden that should not be under-estimated. Businesses

An Italian story of bad luck and lack of diligence

06/06/2017

In a recent judgment, a Milan Court rejected a claim for the loss of value of a sculpture loaned by an Italian public entity to a Belgian museum arising from the alleged damage caused by a fall of the sculpture whilst on loan to the Belgian museum. The judgment is a reminder that in the absence of a detailed condition report, the alleged damage can be difficult to prove. The judgment also points to the difficulty in assessing the loss

Faithless Servants and the Law: Fine Art Dealers Beware

06/06/2017

On 27 February 2017, a New York State Court[1] held that Lisa Jacobs, a fine art dealer and private curator, breached the fiduciary duties she owed to the seller of an artwork entitled Future Sciences Versus the Man by artist Jean Michael Basquiat (the “Work”). As a result of her disloyalty, the Court ordered Jacobs to pay to the seller the $1 million in secret profits plus $50,000 compensation she earned for the sale of the Work along with interests,

Appropriation Art Takes Another Hit in European Courts

09/05/2017

On 9 March 2017, a French High Court held that a 1988 sculpture by appropriation artist Jeff Koons, Naked, infringed on the copyright of the late photographer, Jean-Francois Bauret. The claim was brought by Bauret’s widow, Claude Bauret-Allard, against Koons for copying her husband’s work and against the Centre Pompidou in Paris for using an image of the work in the advertising material for their Koons retrospective in 2014. The court ordered Koons’s company and the Pompidou to each pay