Art Law a Concise Guide for Artists Curators and Art Educators

By Wylie Rechler

Ever wonder about the processes, complexities, and challenges revolving effectually an creative person'southward journey from studio to international renown? Or a collector'south entrada from inheritance to resale of an artwork with questionable title? Or a museum's interactions with an artist'south intricate and controversial body of work and so as to make it comprehensible for visitors? Michael Due east. Jones' new volume Art Law: A Curtailed Guide for Artists, Curators, and Art Educators (2016) ,provides a comprehensive overview of the loopholes and technicalities of the art market, including their historical transformations from it's origin to the nowadays 24-hour interval. Rich with examples and applications, Art Police  compartmentalizes the often perplexing and convoluted legal concepts surrounding the art earth into a digestible package of approaches. Equally a lawyer raised by an creative person, Jones demonstrates a comprehension of the concern and legal challenges artists confront daily. Additionally, the writer's experiences as a "visual fine artist, art collector, consultant to museums, counselor to artists rights societies and private artists, lath trustee for an art college, writer of an intellectual belongings rights volume for artists, judge, university professor," and more greatly contribute to his straightforward and intelligible explanations of complex and intricate notions (Preface, xi).

Jones' starting time chapter starts at the very beginning with "The Professional Artist'southward Life"—an outlined examination chronicling the technical components of the contemporary visual artist'southward career. From the importance of workspace and materials and marketing techniques, to taxes and estate planning, this chapter contains all the relevant legal concepts that employ to artists' creative processes.

The second chapter explores what the author terms "the gallery-auction-firm-collector-major museum-complex" using examples of artists who have achieved entry into the exclusive bubble of the art market and those who have non, including … . This chapter offers an in-depth synopsis of the historical development of Western fine art through each major, instrumental artistic movement and school outset with the Middle Ages' concept of artist guilds. Jones then takes us to the Renaissance period—distinguished by the Medici patronage, innovations in oil painting techniques, and the importance of apprenticeships—followed by Neoclassical era's emphasis on the academies and salons as the taste-makers of this time. Following this, we are informed nearly the touch of the invention of photography and innovations in printmaking. Subsequently, we are introduced to the starting time man to bring "financial leverage into the art market," Paul Durand-Ruel (1831-1922) (P. xxx) and the American ex-pat siblings who operated an artist salon out of their living room, Gertrude and Leo Stein. The Steins are highlighted as an example of how collectors, academics, and patrons can too serve as mentors and, thus, further impact the market place for a item artist. Jones moves on to discuss both the domestic and international impact of the 1913 Armory Bear witness in New York City as a forum for the exchange of ideas. Here, Jones profiles collector, gallerist, and patron Peggy Guggenheim in her role every bit patron and taste-maker of the 20 th century art world. The author notes that, after and effectually this fourth dimension, fine art historians and writers—Clement Greenberg and Meyer Schapiro—also afflicted the market, in their capacity as artist promoters. Greenberg's 1969 book Art and Culture grappled with the substance, significance, and historical context of Modernism in an unprecedented way. Jones concludes this affiliate past discussing the emergence of photography and the Pop Fine art movement alongside developments inside the art market, peculiarly the New York gallery scene. This section thoroughly details how the development of the art market paralleled each era's fine art procedure—the medium used, the style in faddy, the training required, and the dialogue that revolved around the movement, the audition or the consumers of each new creative moving ridge—and leans more toward existence an art historical chapter every bit it closely examines the context of an art movement's conception and how this shaped the art market as nosotros know it today.

The third chapter chronicles the history of the American museum and its varying organizational structures, including incidents involving public disapproval of museum leadership. Museums appear to exist a house of scholarship, exposure, and exhibition for all interested in diving deeper into cultural history of their gild and that of others. Quoting the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Jones cites that museums are "in the service of society and its development… for the purposes of pedagogy, written report, and enjoyment." (47).  Quite frequently these instances of conflict and disapproval revolve around intolerant and disrespectful deportment of the cultures of the museum'southward visitors. Jones highlights the 2015 controversy concerning the Museum of Fine Arts Boston'south inviting visitors to come to the museum and wearing apparel up in a replica of the kimono worn by Camille Monet in Claude Monet's La Japonaise . Afterward protests and accusations of cultural appropriation and insensitivity, the museum cancelled this program and released an amends statement to those offended. Jones also discusses the broader issue of offensive objects on curated brandish, such equally the Confederate flag. The Virginia Museum of Fine Art owned an adjacent bundle of land side by side door to the museum on it that it rented to the Sons of the Confederate Veterans. As it turns out the country housed a chapel which had served equally the site for treating wounded Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. During their charter, the Sons of the Amalgamated Veterans flew a Confederate flag at the forepart of the building to symbolically commemorate their ancestors. The museum'due south lath criticized this gesture every bit a reversion to the promotion of the discriminatory and unjust Civil War-era ideologies of the Confederacy. The board reasoned that the front thousand was the improper context for the exercising of this particular viewpoint and forced its removal. These ii instances in American museum history grapple with the fiduciary responsibilities owed by a cultural establishment to the public. There exists much ongoing fence over how broadly and narrowly the responsibilities of a museum should exist interpreted. In add-on to fiduciary duty to educate the public, Jones discusses the organizational structure of museum operations, which includes a board of directors, the adherence to the museum'south own lawmaking of ethics, and the necessity of property onto a highly valuable art collection as a public trust.

Affiliate Four, "Acquisitions: Adept Title, Theft, Forgery, and Authentication," delves into the issues regarding the transaction of an artwork, including provenance and appraisal. Jones begins past discussing the importance of a sound provenance prior to purchasing art past providing the logical first case of clouded championship—a stolen piece of work of art. In addition to database resources, such as the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland-based for-profit Art Loss Registry, the U.S. government is constantly trying to remedy the plight of those suffering from art crimes. In response to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist (in 1990), legislation passed in the mid-1990s made it a federal crime to steal art objects both older than 100 years and worth more than than $5,000 or but worth more than $100,000. Jones explains that a theft could be made past someone shut to the artist, such as a gallery assistant.  Jones moves on to discuss how each state's statute of limitations could affect an private bringing a claim on account of a wrongly possessed artwork. He references O'Keefe v. Snyder —a case in which artist Georgia O'Keefe sought the render of paintings she'd fabricated years prior from an adverse owner who had acquired it every bit a bona fide purchaser. Jones also highlights the 1970 UNESCO Convention, equally it circulated a code of ethics with respect to participating countries' acquisitions of art objects. Under this code, U.S. museums run by federal agencies are not to acquire art objects illicitly removed from their country of origin (61).

In improver, this chapter examines the challenges and methodologies behind art authentication. When the scholarly evidence of fine art experts has contradicting results or proves uncertain, those seeking to cosign a work of art can at present turn to scientific analysis. From analyzing strokes and mark-making from loftier resolution images of Pieter Bruegel's drawings to testing the chemical components of Jackson Pollock's "Matter" paintings, scientists have made great strides in developing authentication techniques. Due to innovations in authentication, there has been a rising trend in lawsuits brought against fine art institutions for denial or neglect of authenticity. For case, Mr. Lancelot William Thawytes brought suit against Sotheby's London for nether-estimating the value of a painting he consigned that Sotheby's sold equally attributed to a educatee of Caravaggio's. Sir Denis Mahon, the buyer of the work, took several measures to restore and authenticate the painting. He ultimately found it to be a genuine Caravaggio and priced somewhere betwixt £10 and £xv million. He paid only £42,000 for it at sale. Jones reminds his readers that the underlying risk behind all authentications is that "there is no admittedly undeniably objective nor infallible examination to determine authenticity" (66).

The author appropriately dedicates the entire fifth affiliate to the examination of the "ethical and legal challenges of Nazi-era fine art and cultural holding," organized every bit an overview of the evolution of confronting the impact of the Nazi regime on the highly valuable personal property of its victims (77). Jones aptly begins with the 2012 discovery of Cornelius Gurlitt'due south hoard of over ane,300 artworks passed down from his grandfather, the Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt. (Cite Vanity Fair article). Jones explains that discoveries, such equally this 1, reveal the great amount of piece of work that is beingness done and that will need to exist implemented in the  future. Two statutes enacted in 1998 by Congress were intended to help these efforts: the Holocaust Victims Redress Act promoting the return of stolen property and the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Human activity ordering the declassification of Nazi records pertaining to war crimes. In improver to discussing forwards-thinking legislation, Jones chronologically walks his readers through six landmark cases that demonstrate the challenges of the Nazi-era art restitution cases— Price 5. United States, Menzel five. List, Solomon R. Guggenheim v. Lubell, Bakalar v. Vavra , the Portrait of Wally, and the Republic of Republic of austria five. Altmann . Additionally, Jones highlights other instances of the repatriation of cultural belongings not involving Nazi-era claims. These include the Elgin Marbles from Hellenic republic, the head of Male monarch Sargon II from Iraq, a Cambodian mythical statute auctioned at Sotheby's New York, and Native American religious and art objects on display in American institutions. Jones has managed to parcel a dumbo corporeality of case police force and legislative information in a digestible format.

The sixth chapter details the complexities of contract formation inside the context of buying, consigning, and selling fine art in today's global market. From Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, to the requirements of a valid contract—including offer and acceptance, consideration, etc.—Jones covers every principle of contract police that applies to the exchange of artworks. He introduces the components of Visual Artists' Rights Act (VARA), discusses what happens when a party breaches or fails to perform their end of the deal, and explains which remedies are bachelor to the victim of a breach or nonperformance. The author even goes as far as to provide templates of two different kinds of usually formed art contracts—a sample assignment agreement and a sample exhibit contract (104-116).

The following three capacity tackle the significance of artists' rights in today's cultural climate. Start, Jones outlines the benefits and challenges of those artists seeking to enforce the reproduction rights of their artworks. The seventh affiliate presents an overview of the dynamics of the circulation of "the tangible expression of an idea, non the thought itself" (119). Jones provides a brief history of the Copyright Human activity, including its compliance to the Berne Convention—in which American artists receive copyright protection from the approximately one hundred participating countries—and the Universal Copyright Convention—where American artists receive an boosted twenty-v years of copyright protection. Jones also explains the requirements for a piece of work to be eligible for copyright protection. For example, the creativity benchmark demands that the piece of work must be produced by "an exercise of human being chemical element" (123). The topic of copyright infringement is demonstrated through three well-known art law cases— Rogers v. Koons, Cariou 5. Prince , and Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp . The 8th chapter explores artists' rights independent of copyright laws—these moral rights "protect an creative person's non-economical interests" and apply "after the art is sold or transferred" (143). In addition to discussing how American moral rights laws for artists relate to European ones, Jones gives examples of example law within this trunk of law operates. Run into Mass. MoCA v. Buchel . The ninth affiliate reviews offset amendment concerns with respect to artistic expression, starting with censorship practices dating back to the sixteenth century when Pope Pius ordered artists to paint fig leaves to muffle the nudity of the figures depicted in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes. A more contempo example that illustrates this controversy occurred when John D. Rockefeller Jr. deputed Diego Rivera to pigment a mural at Rockefeller Center. Rivera effectively breached his contract to paint a homo at a crossroads by instead depicting Vladimir Lenin. Rivera was fired and the mural destroyed. The affiliate too discusses the intersections of liberty of expression with defamation, obscenity, privacy violations, and trademark infringement, illustrated by the challenges faced by Robert Mapplethorpe, Arne Svenson, Robert Indiana, and more.

In the 10th and final chapter  Jones concludes past reviewing the dissimilar avenues through which artists can receive funding: federal agencies, state councils promoting the arts, crowdfunding, and foundations established either by private collectors or artists. In add-on to listing examples of grant sources, Jones provides a thorough examination of the ways through which an artist could go near applying and receiving such funds. Furthermore, Jones relates dorsum to his first chapter by including applications of the law to diverse disputes regarding such individual foundations supporting the arts. These foundations—the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the Barnes Foundation, for example—have faced lawsuits ranging from fiduciary responsibilities and compensation, to partnerships with other successful foundations.

While the cases Jones makes references to cases that might non have the freshest shelf life, this is case police that should exist known and understood by every individual who is because a career in or involving art police. Jones's constant references to historical events and the evolution of ideas provides a wonderful insight for his readers. Not just has the author successfully penned a crash course in contract law, copyright law, property law, and Western art history in one extensive nonetheless concise two hundred-page volume—simply he also applies each and every of import legal concept to the ever-changing, e'er exciting art market.

About the Author: Michael C. Jones is a professor emeritus in the University of Massachusetts Lowell College of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. He conducts research in areas including intellectual property law for artists, international applications of copyright constabulary, and sports law. Art Law is his fourth publication on the topic.

Disclaimer: Book reviews are no substitute for reading and interacting with the book reviewed.

*About the reviewer: Wylie Rechler is a Summertime 2017 Legal Intern with the Eye for Art Constabulary. She is a rising 2L, J.D. Candidate at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Police force and graduated in 2016 from Cornell Academy with a B.A. in art history. While at Cornell, she studied art and business abroad at the Sotheby'southward Institute of Fine art in London. She tin exist reached at rechler@law.cardozo.yu.edu .

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Source: https://itsartlaw.org/2017/07/27/book-review-art-law-a-concise-guide-for-artists-curators-and-art-educators-by-michael-e-jones-2016/