Steve and Katie speak with appellate litigator David Barrett about the story animating a recent Supreme Court case between the heirs of Lilly Cassirer, who fled Germany in 1939 after surrendering the painting Rue Saint-Honoré Après-midi, Effet de Pluie ( Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain ) by Camille Pissarro to the Nazis, and the Spanish Museum known as the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. They discuss the journey of the painting in and out of the United States over a 60-plus-year...
Dec 13, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Katie and Steve discuss some recent art museum-related legal(ish) developments, including New York's new legislation requiring labeling of Nazi-looted art, the AAMD's long-awaited changes to its deaccessioning policy, and an unusual gift/sale of part of MoMA's collection. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2022/10/25/some-art-museum-related-updates/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artlawpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@artlawpodcast...
Oct 25, 2022•39 min•Season 6Ep. 2
To open Season 6, Katie and Steve discuss the shocking arrest of Jean-Luc Martinez, director of the Louvre in Paris from 2013 to 2021, related to his involvement in the alleged trafficking of antiquities for the Louvre Abu Dhabi with French criminal lawyer Sarah Arpagaus. They discuss cultural property crimes more broadly and take a detour into the world of French criminal law and its striking difference with the system here in the US. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2022/09/06/...
Sep 06, 2022•51 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Steve and Katie speak to anti-money laundering and sanctions expert Paula Trommel of Corinth Consulting about Russian sanctions and their impact on the art market in the short and long term. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2022/07/15/russian-sanctions-and-the-art-market/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artlawpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@artlawpodcast...
Jul 15, 2022•54 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Katie and Steve speak with Evan Beard, currently Executive Vice President at Masterworks, about fractional ownership of art and new art securitization trends and initiatives, who the issuers and investors in this space are, and what they can achieve through these alternative investment structures. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2022/06/09/fractional-ownership-of-art-can-regular-people-own-a-piece-of-the-high-end-art-market/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Instagram: https://www.inst...
Jun 09, 2022•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 7
Steve and Katie give a brief update on New York City's recent repeal of its regulations governing auctioneers and auction practices. These regulations provided consumer protections by enforcing a measure of transparency into the auction process, such as requiring auctioneers to publicly disclose when they had a financial stake in an object being sold. Interestingly, major stakeholders appeared surprised by the repeal, which they had not requested and seemed indifferent about. Notes for this epis...
May 10, 2022•15 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Susan Mumford and Chris King, co-founders of ArtAML, return to the Podcast and talk with Steve about the recent release by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ("FinCEN") of its "Study of the Facilitation of Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism through the Trade in Works of Art." To the surprise of Steve and his guests, FinCEN concluded that there is limited evidence of money laundering and little risk of terror financing through the sale of high value art. The discussion focuses ...
Mar 28, 2022•32 min•Season 5Ep. 5
With Katie on a parental leave, Steve speaks with Herrick Feinstein's Victor Rocco about his firm's representation of the Republic of Turkey in litigation brought by Turkey to possess a millennia-old Anatolian marble statue (the Stargazer) owned by Michael Steinhardt and sold by him through Christie's. (We previously had counsel for Christie's and Steinhardt on the podcast.) After a trial in the Southern District of New York, Turkey lost for the primary reason that they could not provide facts s...
Mar 03, 2022•56 min•Season 5Ep. 4
In a re-release of last June's episode, Katie and Steve speak (again) with digital art and NFT enthusiast Jason Bailey about the sudden rise of NFTs in the art world, what they really are, why they have value, and who is interested in them and why. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2022/01/10/skepticism-and-optimism-around-art-nfts-revisited/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artlawpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@artlawpodcast...
Jan 10, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Katie and Steve speak with veteran cultural property and art lawyer, Tom Kline, about his representation of Christie's and Michael Steinhardt in litigation brought by Turkey to possess a millennia-old Anatolian marble statue (the Stargazer) owned by Steinhardt and sold by him through Christie's. After a trial in the Southern District of New York, Turkey lost for the primary reason that they could not provide facts supporting their claim to ownership of the Stargazer, specifically that it was sto...
Dec 02, 2021•51 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Steve and Katie talk to Susan Mumford and Chris King, co-founders of ArtAML, about the recent roll out of AML regulations covering art market participants in the United Kingdom, who is implicated, how they can comply, and what this means for art businesses and the culture of secrecy in the art market generally. The requirement to determine and seek documentation of the ultimate beneficial owner on each end of the transaction is something financial institutions have long done, but not art dealers...
Nov 01, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Katie and Steve speak (again) with digital art and NFT enthusiast Jason Bailey about the sudden rise of NFTs in the art world, what they really are, why they have value, and who is interested in them and why. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2021/06/02/skepticism-and-optimism-around-art-nfts/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artlawpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@artlawpodcast...
Jun 02, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Katie and Steve finally tackle the evolving area of fair use as a defense to copyright infringement with Luke Nikas, attorney for the Andy Warhol Foundation and Partner at Quinn Emanuel. Luke represents the Foundation in its ongoing litigation with photographer Lynn Goldsmith about Warhol's use of Goldsmith's photograph of the artist Prince as an artist study for a series of screen prints. Goldsmith claims Warhol infringed her copyright in the original photograph. The Warhol Foundation says Warh...
May 03, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Steve and Katie speak with legal scholar Mira Sundara Rajan regarding the international landscape for artist moral rights protections, including the adoption of moral rights laws in the developing world, common law versus civil law jurisdictions, and the connection between moral rights and cultural heritage concerns. Steve, Katie, and Mira dive into two case studies: the Indian case Amar Nath Sehgal v. Union of India (2005) involving government removal of and damage to famous murals from a gover...
Mar 29, 2021•1 hr 19 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Steve and Katie speak with British art lawyer and General Counsel of Phillips auction house Martin Wilson about European anti-money laundering regulations applicable to art market participants and their recent implementation in the UK. Generally, these regulations require art dealers, galleries, and auction houses to register with the government and undertake due diligence on every art transaction over a certain threshold amount, including with respect to the identity of all ultimate beneficial ...
Mar 05, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Steve and Katie end 2020 with a few updates on past podcast episode topics, including 5Pointz and moral rights litigation, the Painted Bride mosaic mural battle, deaccessioning in Baltimore, and pandemic related litigation. We look forward to many more interesting topics in 2021! Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2021/01/08/goodbye-2020-and-some-art-law-updates/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artlawpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@artlawpod...
Jan 08, 2021•47 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Steve and Katie discuss the recent deaccessioning controversies at the Brooklyn Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, and Everson Museum of Art in light of the ethical guidelines, new AAMD guidance, and the economic and social climate. They also discuss the recent postponement of the Philip Guston retrospective at the National Gallery, Tate Modern, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Museum of Fine Arts Boston due to its depiction of white nationalism and the criticisms of that decision. Please note the...
Oct 29, 2020•47 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Steve and Katie speak with old master art dealer and scholar Robert Simon about his discovery of the painting Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and sold by Christie's in 2017 for almost half a billion dollars. They discuss Simon's purchase of the painting from an obscure New Orleans auction house, the painting's painstaking restoration and scholarly review, and what we know and don't know about its history over the last 500 years. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/202...
Sep 14, 2020•58 min•Season 3Ep. 10
We are re-releasing our podcast with journalist and author Ben Lewis in anticipation of our forthcoming discussion with Robert Simon. We talked with Ben in depth about his book, The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting , about the history and ultimate sale by Christie's auction house in November 2017 for just over $450.3 million of the painting Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci. Our next episode with Robert Simon will revisit this story from a diffe...
Sep 08, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Katie and Steve speak with Michael Weinberg, the Executive Director of the Engelberg Center of Innovation Law and Policy at NYU Law School, about 3D digitization of gallery, library, archive and museum ("GLAM") institution collections, the goals and motivations for such projects, and how digitization implicates (or doesn't) rightsholders. They also discuss the open access framework in which these digitization projects occur, the difference between 2D and 3D copying, and the legal and ethical fra...
Aug 03, 2020•55 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Katie and Steve speak with Jay Sanders, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Artists Space, a vanguard artist-centered arts nonprofit, founded in 1972 and located in New York City, about the devastating impact of the pandemic shutdown on small arts nonprofits, as well as the inspiration and community being cultivated in this moment of hardship. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2020/06/01/arts-nonprofits-in-the-pandemic/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagr...
Jun 01, 2020•44 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Katie and Steve welcome back to the podcast museum director, art commentator, and art historian Max Anderson to discuss what art museums (now closed) are dealing with during the Covid-19 crisis in terms of mission, funding, audience engagement and an uncertain future. They discuss structural issues and practices pre-existing the pandemic that put pressure on museums' stated missions and appeal, as well as potential shifts in focus and priority that may come out of this current moment of reorgani...
May 11, 2020•58 min•Season 3Ep. 6
In this bonus episode, Steve analyzes the recent Second Circuit decision affirming the 2018 decision awarding $6.75 million to the artists of 5Pointz, whose works were whitewashed and torn down by the building's owner in 2013. To put this important decision into a broader context, we have re-released our April 2018 episode on 5Pointz, where we discuss the district court case in which the aerosol artists asserted violations of their moral rights under the Visual Artist Rights Act, the U.S. moral ...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 3Ep. 5
This month, we are updating and rereleasing one of our most popular episodes, Art of the Chase: Inside Art Auctions. In this episode, we take a close look at art auctions – how they work, their place in the art market and the rules and regulations that confine/define them. Auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's now regularly net tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars for a single work. Christie's sold Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi painting for $450 million in 2017, still, by far, ...
Dec 02, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Steve and Katie discuss two recent art world controversies involving small, local nonprofits seeking to raise money through asset divestment. The di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa Valley is attempting to deaccession most of its permanent collection of Bay Area art works in the face of vocal art world opposition. In Philadelphia, the proposed sale of the Painted Bride Art Center building by the organization's board, including its one of a kind mosaic mural façade, has raised public prot...
Nov 05, 2019•42 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Steve and Katie have a wide ranging conversation with art historian and former lawyer, Joan Kee, about the topic of her new book, Models of Integrity: Art and Law in Post-Sixties America. Their conversation probes artists' embrace and rejection of legal structures in contemporary America, as well as artistic indifference about and dependence on the law. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2019/10/01/how-artists-mess-with-the-law/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Instagram: https://www.ins...
Oct 01, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 2
CORRECTION: After the recording of this podcast, the San Francisco School Board, in the face of community protest, reconsidered its decision to remove the George Washington murals from George Washington High School and will instead cover them. Against the backdrop of global museums distancing themselves from the Sackler name, two highly controversial Whitney Biennials involving activist calls for the destruction and removal of an artwork and, more recently, calls for the resignation of a Board m...
Sep 04, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Steve and Katie talk about and compare two recent Holocaust-era art cases decided in New York, one in state court on summary judgment and one in federal court on a motion to dismiss grounds. Both cases involve the claims of heirs to recover artwork that left the hands of Jewish owners persecuted by the Nazis, but they otherwise greatly differ. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2019/08/05/recent-new-york-holocaust-era-art-cases-come-out-differently/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Insta...
Aug 05, 2019•42 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Katie and Steve talk with Ben Lewis, author of the new book, The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting , about the history and ultimate sale by Christie's auction house in November 2017 of the painting Salvator Mundi which they attribute to Leonardo Da Vinci for just over $450.3 million. Notes for this episode: http://artlawpodcast.com/2019/07/01/the-last-leonardo-with-ben-lewis/ Follow the Art Law Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artlawpodcast/ TikTo...
Jul 01, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Katie and Steve speak with Laura Patten and Michael Shepard about financial crimes, including money laundering, involving art. They discuss high profile examples of art-related financial crime, the reality and challenges of compliance for galleries, dealers and other art market participants, and the regulatory landscape in the U.S. and Europe. Laura formerly worked with the CIA and FBI on high stakes art crime investigations. Michael has worked for years on anti-money laundering and financial cr...
Apr 23, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 7
