Greetings!

We would like to invite dedicated attorneys to provide pro bono supervision of our law students engaging in art law legal research. Students will be performing legal research and drafting advisories for the benefit of the art community on topics of importance to the community. This is a unique opportunity to use your legal skills to support artists and provide guidance and mentorship to Berkeley Law students. Email us if you are interested.

Last month we hosted a conversation with Maggie Hoag and Jason Pollack of Christie's, the renowned auction house.The session was well attended and we were delighted to host them! Below is what's coming up:

🎨 Tuesday, October 8 - a session on art forgery with Lance Esplund, author and art critic for the WSJ; Ann Freedman, founder of FreedmanArt; and Berkeley Law professor Frank Partnoy. Register here>

🎨 Monday, October 28 - a transatlantic session on restitution claims for cultural artifacts and property rights with Judge Simon J. Frankel of the San Francisco Superior Court, partner Thaddeus J. Stauber of Nixon Peabody, and professors Andrea Averardi and Anna Pirri Valentini of IMT Lucca. Register here>

This month we highlight news of the effect of interest rate cuts on the art market, social activism, a groundbreaking green initiative, an explosion of immersive art, and more.

Delia Violante

Founder of the Art, Law, and Finance Project

Berkeley Center for Law and Business

Alan Mazzetti - In Sight, acrylic on wood panel 48x44

Academic Corner

PAMELA SAMUELSON | BERKELEY LAW

In her recent article Did the Solicitor General Hijack the Warhol v. Goldsmith Case?, Professor Pamela Samuelson examines one peculiar aspect of the case. From the time the suit was initiated, the dispute was primarily about whether Andy Warhol had infringed Goldsmith’s copyright in a photograph of Prince by creating 16 works based on it, with the trial court and the Second Circuit disagreeing about whether these creations were fair use. The Supreme Court, however, skirted this issue entirely and ruled only that the Warhol Foundation’s unauthorized 2016 licensing of one of the prints to Conde Nast was an infringing use. The rationale for the limited ruling was that Goldsmith had abandoned the broader claim. But why was that claim abandoned at the last minute, and what role was played by an amicus brief of the Office of the Solicitor General which reframed the Warhol case along the more limited lines of the final decision? And where does this leave us on questions of what constitutes fair use in the creation of derivative works? Read more>

Is VARA Backfiring?

THE ART NEWSPAPER

The limitations of the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) resurfaced after the Mary Miss v. Des Moines Art Center lawsuit this past spring. The judge handed a victory to Mary Miss, but based it on a contract while ruling that the “land art” in question did not meet VARA’s definition of a protected work. Read more>

New California Law Could Reverse Pissarro Dispute

POLITICO

A new law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom is intended to resolve a decades-long restitution claim in a California family’s favor, undoing a recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and helping "Holocaust survivors recover art stolen by Nazis”. Read more>

Should Art Be Regulated by the SEC?

WIRED

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NFT artists are seeking a declaratory judgment from the SEC that their projects are not regulated securities under U.S. law. How the regulatory body rules could give a boost to a new way of selling art, or strangle the baby in the cradle. The looming U.S. election could also profoundly affect the decision. Read more>

Former Trump Advisor Charged in Art Money Laundering

REUTERS

Dimitri Simes, former Trump advisor and Russian state TV commentator, has been charged with three counts of violating US sanctions, including money laundering through art and antique acquisitions. He has allegedly participated in the activities with his wife since early June of 2022. Read more>

Report Alert: Auction Sales

ARTNET THE INTELLIGENCE REPORT



According to Artnet’s Mid-Year Intelligence Report, the art market is facing a steep drop in the resale value of once-coveted works, and total sales at top auction houses down nearly 30%. China’s economic slowdown, wars and other factors have played a role in the downturn. With the bursting of the speculative bubble, big spenders are holding back, and auctioneers and gallerists are tightening their belts. Read more>

Rough Times for Sotheby's

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The art market is grinding through a rough patch, and no one is feeling the pain more than Sotheby’s. The auction house had been bringing in more than $7 billion annually with record-level prices for works by Gustav Klimt and Rene Magritte, but now is struggling to stay afloat with enormous debts. Read more>

Can Interest Rate Cut Revive Art Market?

ARTNEWS

The Federal Reserve recently cut interest rates by half a point, which might be expected to bring a boost to the art market. Analysts are skeptical that will be the case this time around, and additional cuts may be required before buyers are willing to spend and sellers are willing to put their best works on the market. Read more>

New York Gallery Closures: Artists Fend for Themselves

THE ART NEWSPAPER

Amid a recent wave of multiple city stalwarts shuttering, from Marlborough to David Lewis, former clients are forced to find alternative outlets. Over the past four years, artists have found themselves without representation and support, sometimes on short notice. Read more>

Groundbreaking Green Initiative

ARTNET

The Gallery Climate Coalition launched a new alliance of 13 organizations representing over 40 major art fairs. Each has pledged to adhere to a statement, which aims to reduce emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030. Participants will follow best practice guidelines and measure and report on their progress. Read more>

Activists' Retaliation

THE GUARDIAN

Three Just Stop Oil activists threw soup at two of Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" paintings in London's National Gallery last week, just hours after two other members of the protest group were jailed for doing the same thing in 2022. Read more>

Beirut's Determined Artists: 'Art Is the Opposite of War'

THE ART NEWSPAPER

A wave of Israeli airstrikes has led to gallery and museum closures, but artists and gallerists are set on continuing their work in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. As they enter survival mode, a strong sense of community pervades the Lebanese art sphere. Read more>

Despite Fears, AI Is not the Art World's Enemy

THE ART NEWSPAPER

Concerns about access, expertise, and data sourcing have overshadowed the enormous power and potential that AI image generators offer. Anxieties about AI can be blown out of proportion when it comes to appreciating artists existing and future real-time engagement with these breakout tools. Read more>

The Birth of Dataland

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Refik Anadol, the artist who projected the history of the Los Angeles Philharmonic as a piece of algorithmic video onto the curving steel walls of Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2018, recently announced that he will open the world’s first museum of AI arts next year. Read more>

Stolen Banksy Print Is Recovered by Authorities

ARTNET

Thieves stole a print of Banksy’s famous Balloon Girl image from a London Gallery after a showing of his works had closed. The artwork has since been recovered, and police have charged two men with burglary for the theft. Read more>

Pieces of Vasari's Masterpiece Reunited

ARTNET

Vasari’s nine-panel masterpiece depicting the five virtues surrounded by cherubs once adorned the ceiling of a palace in Venice, but was broken up centuries ago. Now, with the exception of two fragments, the pieces have been reunited at Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia. Read more>

Immersive Art Is Exploding

ARTNEWS

Blockbuster art exhibitions were once largely the province of museums. Crowds now flock to popular immersive exhibitions in a new breed of art venue. Last year, some 2.4 million people paid approximately $25 each to experience teamLab’s Planets in Tokyo, racking up ticket sales on a par with revenues at the Met or the Tate. Read more>

Meet the Artist

ALAN MAZZETTI

Alan Mazzetti is a contemporary artist living and working in San Francisco, California, specializing in abstract landscapes and cityscapes. A second-generation artist and Californian, he is strongly attracted to the many visual delights of the Bay Area and has developed a unique approach to depicting them in his acrylic paintings. Alan’s fine art was originally an extension of his illustration work, using collage and photo-transfer imagery to describe his environment, primarily urban scenes from San Francisco and abroad. Intrigued with the idea of “essentials”, he gradually stripped down his imagery to basic shapes, colors and textures leading to geometric abstractions. He later began adding “horizon lines” to suggest the forms of landscapes, depicting the urban and natural environment of California while still remaining essentially non-representational. “The thing that excites me the most now is shapes and patterns – obvious in buildings with their blocky forms and repeated windows, and also present in the vineyards and agricultural valley scenes.” In taking an abstract approach to his pieces, he is more interested in suggesting than defining, depicting mood rather than detail, and making the process of painting itself the main subject of his work. Learn more>

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