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 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
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
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
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
For nearly two decades, the “transformative use test” has been a staple of fair use analysis, and particularly in the Second Circuit. The Copyright Act, however, uses the word “transformative” not in the section on fair use...more
The Second Circuit recently decided whether artist Andy Warhol’s series of silkscreen prints and pencil illustrations titled “Prince Series” was a fair use of photographer Lynn Goldsmith’s copyrighted photograph of musical...more
The Lillian Corporation purchases a vacant and dilapidated office building with plans to demolish it and build luxury condos. Only one thing stands in the way: a mural on the side of the building painted years earlier by a...more
Robin Pogrebin at the New York Times has written an excellent piece on the news that the Brooklyn Museum intends to sell several works from its collection to raise money. The museum explicitly relies on the pandemic-inspired...more
G&M Realty (G&M), the owner of the famous New York City graffiti space known as 5Pointz, asked the Supreme Court to strike down as unconstitutional the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), a federal copyright law that provides...more
The Second Circuit recently affirmed that a developer’s whitewashing of street art painted at the “5Pointz” warehouse complex in Long Island City was a violation of the Visual Artists Rights Act (“VARA,” codified at 17 U.S.C....more
A $6.75 million judgment was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, against a developer that whitewashed 45 spray-painted artworks on its site — several months before the demolition permits were issued....more
Last week, the Second Circuit issued a landmark decision clarifying the types of work protectable under the federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) in Cohen v. G&M Realty L.P. The decision confirms that graffiti art is a...more
On February 20, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided Castillo v. G&M Realty L.P., holding that aerosol artwork with a short lifespan may still achieve “recognized stature” under the Visual...more
To many, the names “Rocky Balboa” and the “Italian Stallion” are as universal and front of mind as the names “Chuck Wepner” and the “Bayonne Bleeder” are regional and tucked into (or have already fallen out of or never made...more
In recent art world news, Sotheby’s announced that England-based street artist Banksy’s iconic Girl With Balloon (2006), which infamously shredded itself moments after being sold at auction in London earlier this month, has...more
I am pleased to report on the outcome of a matter we announced in February. After a disagreement with the City of Palo Alto (California) about her sculpture Digital DNA, Sullivan & Worcester LLP client Adriana Varella has...more
The decision by a New York court last month in favor of the Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné (AMCR) in a lawsuit by the Mayor Gallery Ltd in the United Kingdom is the latest in a series of disputes over the practice of...more
A recent article I co-authored and published in the New York Law Journal recaps and highlights the key takeaways in the federal district court’s decision in Cohen v. G&M Realty L.P. (E.D.N.Y, Feb. 18, 2018), relating to the...more
Having been a violinist, one area of law which has always intrigued me is performers’ rights. Known as “moral rights,” performer’s rights, among other things include the right to control how the performer’s rendition of a...more
In recent art world news, following last month’s federal district court ruling that a New York City developer violated the Visual Artists Rights Act (“VARA”) when he demolished well known graffiti space, 5Pointz Aerosol Art...more
In recent art world news, last week a federal district court in New York ruled the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (“VARA”), a federal law protecting visual artwork from destruction, covered the graffiti artists’ aerosol...more
Sullivan & Worcester LLP has taken action on behalf of its client, artist Adriana Varella, to protect her sculpture Digital DNA from removal and destruction by the City of Palo Alto, California. Digital DNA has stood in the...more