When buying and selling online, collectors need to know a whole new set of rules.

We would have trouble bringing some of our clients home for dinner. Take Tobias, for example.

He called us from Berlin and said he was a wealthy businessman looking to refine his extensive collection of S&M-themed artwork and gadgets – some of it, apparently, quite valuable. He planned to buy and sell pieces through an American online auction site and wanted to discuss any possible legal issues. Continue reading “Virtual Reality”

A generous bequest touches off an ownership dispute. How does the law interpret a donor’s intentions?

Catalina had been a trustee of a respected New York museum for many years, and as it turned out, she was allergic to oysters.
Very, very allergic.
Her funeral service was short and sweet, and we soon found ourselves back at Catalina’s Fifth Avenue town house for the reception, watching her grieving sisters calculate their inheritance. Given the size of her estate, this took quite some time.
Bruce, the museum’s director, was in the midst of telling us what a loyal trustee Catalina had been when her 8-year-old nephew interrupted, asking if he could speak with him “about something superimportant.” Continue reading “Points of No Return”

The policy on sunken treasure used to be “finders keepers.” Now shipwreck salvagers must navigate complex laws to avoid being marooned in court.

A faithful, long-time reader (OK, our sister Susan) once posed a very interesting question: “Who owns cultural artifacts located in ancient shipwrecks?” Since Susan was 5 years old at the time and busy building a sand castle on the beach, those may not have been her exact words, but we got her drift.
According to Unesco, some three million sunken ships remain undiscovered in the ocean. Based on our research, there seem to be almost as many laws, treaties and conventions governing the ownership of artifacts on these wrecks. This may explain why it took us nearly 35 years to answer Susan’s question. Continue reading “Murky Waters”

Artists don’t always need permission to cash in on a celebrity’s likeness. But how far can they go?

Even our assistant, Juniper, was impressed when the call came from Elle one morning. Our client had been a Hollywood celebrity for so long that many had forgotten why she was even famous in the first place. Continue reading “The Big Picture”

As a playwright (not our client) once wrote: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Under U.S. obscenity laws, if Rose looks younger than 18 but actually isn’t, the same amount of jail time would apply.

A prospective client of ours almost learned this the hard way. George, a photography dealer, asked us to represent him in connection with a proposed gallery exhibition that would reinterpret Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Being fans of great literature (our mother is an English Professor), we thought it sounded like a great idea. As it turned out, it wasn’t. Continue reading “Obscene Or Not Obscene”

Phantom bids, shill bids, secret signals – a lot more can happen in an auction salesroom.

The two of us are such shameless technological Luddites that until recently we thought that eBay was a honeymoon destination in the Caribbean. By contrast, our client Bowne had developed an Internet technology so complicated that he probably didn’t understand it himself, and made a tremendous fortune in the process. Continue reading “House Rules”

You donate a valuable work of art and expect a big tax break. Here’s why you may not get it.

When we last had seen Mr. Watson, he was a struggling sculptor in upstate New York, but the recent death of his grandparents in a freak mudslide spelled the end of his financial woes. He was now rich. Very, very rich. And on top of a bulging bank account, he was the proud owner of a museum-quality art collection. Continue reading “Powers of Deduction”

Merchandising artwork can be very lucrative – and riddled with hazards. How does the law protect ideas, both business and creative?

Some of our clients fly private jets, while others, we fear, may soon be driving yellow cabs. But most share a common goal (in addition to wanting crack legal advice): to profit in some way from the art world.
Roger was no exception. He came to us with questions about his business plan, which involved licensing images created by popular artists to makers of products and apparel. The problem was that Roger didn’t know a product license from a driver’s license. His previous attempts at licensing artworks had ended in disaster. Most recently, he had sought to reproduce landscape paintings on backpacks. The concept was so clever that the first artist he approached stole the idea and had the merchandise manufactured himself. Roger never saw a penny. Continue reading “Artistic License”

A prize purchase becomes a shipping nightmare because it uses ivory from a protected animal. How can you avoid being ambushed?

The call came via satellite phone from our client vacationing in Zimbabwe, and he was furious. His safari was nearly ruined, he said, when he learned that an antique scroll he had just bought at auction in New York could not be exported immediately to his home in Europe. Continue reading “The Origin of Species”

A painting you’ve lent to an exhibition is suddenly subject to a legal claim in that jurisdication. The museum agrees to return the work, but is it still at risk?

The first call from one of our European clients came on a Friday afternoon, just as we were about to leave town for a short vacation in Italy. He was already enjoying his own holiday in Monte Carlo, and we had a bit of trouble hearing him over the din of his yacht’s engine. Continue reading “Loan Security”