Greetings!
On June 8th, BCLB successfully wrapped up the second annual Symposium on Art, Finance, and Law. In a packed room at SFMOMA, we discussed art in relation to artificial intelligence, copyright, and provenance, as well as financial fraud and money laundering. The Symposium was covered by Law360 and by Berkeley Law.
This month we highlight news on copyright, legislation, artificial intelligence, and the future of the art industry.
Delia Violante
Berkeley Center for Law and Business
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Irys Schenker - For the love of Claude - 23x3 colored pencil on paper |
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Berkeley Law Faculty Corner
The Supreme Court has issued its much-anticipated decision in Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith ruling in favor of Goldsmith. Professor Peter Menell presented a detailed discussion of the ruling in his panel at the second annual Berkeley Art, Finance, and Law Symposium. Menell pointed out that our copyright system is geared to serve the interests of creators, and that the fair use provision should not supplant the creator’s right to control derivative works. “Warhol was an incredibly important figure in art, but to say his Prince image was transformative goes beyond credulity,” Menell said. “It’s not a very different image. Justice Sotomayor made a point to say we treat all artists on equal footing, with no Warhol exception. The case will have tremendous importance and feed directly into some of the litigation now bubbling up.” Read more>
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Frances Gearhart Returns to Campus
On September 14, Berkeley Law alum and lecturer Paul Clark will talk about the color block prints of Frances Gearhart, an important California artist who was active in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Ms. Gearhart graduated from Cal in 1900. Examples of her work will be exhibited. The lecture, hosted at the Women’s Faculty Club, will start at 4:00 pm, followed by a reception. Reservations required. RSVP Here>
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EU Landmark "AI Act" Legislation Moves Forward
A draft law in the European Parliament has become the world’s most far-reaching attempt to address the potentially harmful effects of artificial intelligence. The first major laws to regulate artificial intelligence could serve as a model for policymakers around the world as they grapple with how to put guardrails on the rapidly developing technology. DW - Read More>
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A $55M Masterpiece Is Going Public
Artex is launching a roughly $55 million initial public offering of Francis Bacon’s 1963 triptych “Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer.” Artex has secured partnerships with well-established stock exchange infrastructure service providers to ensure a seamless trading experience and a robust trading platform. BusinessWire - Read More>
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Greece Wins Legal Battle
In the aftermath of the 2005 corruption scandal surrounding art dealer Robin Symes, Greece fought to reclaim stolen artifacts his company still had in its possession. Now, close to twenty years later, the country has finally won the return of hundreds of pieces, some as many as 6000 years old. Artnet - Read More>
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Achieving Transparency Through Lawsuit
The art market is often full of complex transactions - some of which are difficult even for those involved to fully understand. A recent lawsuit over a jointly owned painting has raised a number of questions about the limited transparency in many art industry transactions, and some experts suggest that it is time for a change in how art finance is conducted. The Art Newspaper - Read more>
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Has New York's Hot Art Market Finally Cooled?
As interest rates increase and fewer Americans buy homes that need decorating, the art market too has begun to slow down. New York dealerships and auction houses are confronting this changing tide and asking themselves: What is the future of the art industry? The Art Newspaper - Read More>
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Met's Major Shift on Contested Antiquities
After long resisting change and fighting back against criticism, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art has shifted its policies regarding stolen artifacts and has agreed to take "strong and immediate action" to address the massive number of unjustly owned works within the museum. This could have a dramatic impact on the policies of other museums around the world. Antiquities Coalition - Read More>
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Consequences of False Claims
An artist in Washington has been sentenced to eighteen months in prison after falsely claiming to be an Indigenous American for over a decade in order to sell his work. The case, which is not the only one of its kind in a Washington court, has caused outrage from the Nez Perce people, who feel the incident is just one in a long series that appropriate and devalue the identity of indigenous people. Artnet - Read More>
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Art Advisor Hit with 'Ponzi Scheme' Lawsuit
A new scandal in the art world: Prominent art advisor Lisa Schiff has fallen from grace, with former clients suing her for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme. Schiff claims she doesn't have the money to pay her clients, but the discovery of years of lavish spending puts her finances into question. Artnet - Read More>
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Tiepolo at the Center of a Dispute
The auction house Sotheby's is under fire for misrepresenting the provenance of a painting by Tiepolo, an 18th century Venetian artist, that was stolen during the Nazi era. The heirs of the original owner have called the misleading sale an act of injustice, claiming it exploited the violence against their relatives. NYTimes - Read More>
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Use of Blockchain as Digital Provenance
Though the market for NFTs has cooled dramatically, blockchain technology is generating new interest in the art world as a means of tracking provenance and setting the terms of contracts governing the ownership and resale of art works. The Art Newspaper - Read More>
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AI Art and the Problem of Consent
In a recent opinion piece, artist Mathew Dryhurst argues that in the dawn of the AI-driven internet, we are witnessing the revenge of free media. ArtReview - Read More>
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San Francisco's Point of Infinity
Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto has planted a slender, 69-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture on a hilltop on Yerba Buena Island, meant to serve as an anchor — or beacon, given its height — for the area’s new public art program. NYTimes - Read More>
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Meet the Artist: Irys Schenker
Irys Schenker studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and received a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. She was a guest at the famed artist residency Yaddo and a resident artist laureate at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. She has had many shows in the U.S. and overseas including at The Jewish Museum of San Francisco, Kappatos Gallery in Athens, Greece, Bronx Museum of the Arts and White Columns in NYC. Her recent work is a series of paintings on paper of women artists, writers, performers, and patrons working at the advent of Modernism; a project that seeks to create a feminist visual history and compendium of major figures of the avant-garde often overlooked or forgotten. Read More>
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