For the fifth year running, the Chambers High Net Worth guide, which focuses on the private wealth sector, recognized HHR as one of the nation’s leading law firms for Art and Cultural Property Law.
Chambers ranked HHR’s Art Law practice in the second-highest band among the top firms nationwide. “Hughes
Continue Reading Hughes Hubbard’s Art Practice Recognized by Chambers for Fifth Straight Year
On August 16, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s legal victory in the copyright lawsuit fellow artist Joe Morford brought against him alleging that Comedian (2019), Cattelan’s famous duct-taped banana installation at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, infringed on
Continue Reading Affirmed on A-Peel: Following the Eleventh Circuit’s Affirmance of Maurizio Cattelan’s Defeat of Copyright Infringement Suit Over His Duct-Taped Banana, the Work May Soon Fetch More than $1 Million at Auction
On May 3, 2024, U.S. District Judge Stephen H. Locher of the Southern District of Iowa granted artist Mary Miss’s motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the demolition or removal of her outdoor environmental artwork entitled Greenwood Pond: Double Site, which sits on the grounds of the Des
Continue Reading Sculpture or Sculptural? — A Determinant of Moral Rights Under VARA
On July 31, 2024, the U.S. Copyright Office issued the first of several planned reports on the intersection between copyright and generative Artificial Intelligence (“AI”), following a lengthy period of public comment, during which it received more than 10,300 comments, discussed previously on this blog. Titled “Part 1: Digital Replicas,”
Continue Reading Copyright Office Issues First Report on Generative AI
We recently reported on the denial by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York of an art seller’s motion to dismiss a buyer’s claim for breach of contract arising out of the seller’s alleged failure to comply with resale restrictions contained in a contract governing the
Continue Reading Another Dip into Resale Restrictions: When Are Restraints on Alienation Unreasonable?
On April 22, 2024, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York denied an art seller’s motion to dismiss a buyer’s claim for breach of contract arising out of the seller’s alleged failure to comply with resale restrictions contained in a contract governing the seller’s
Continue Reading Cloudy with a Chance of Liability: Art Seller Must Face Suit for Breach of Warranty of Good Title
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools—defined by the U.S. Copyright Office as technology that is “capable of producing outputs such as text, images, video, or audio (including emulating a human voice) that would be considered copyrightable if created by a human author”[1]—are trained by analyzing vast amounts of data
Continue Reading U.S. Copyright Office Examines Copyright and Generative AI
On May 9, 2024, in a 6–3 decision, the United States Supreme Court held that the Copyright Act does not limit monetary damages for copyright infringement to those incurred within the three-year statute of limitations: “There is no time limit on monetary recovery,” the Supreme Court declared, “[s]o a copyright
Continue Reading The U.S. Supreme Court Puts the Remedial Cart Before the Horse: No Time Limit Exists on Monetary Recovery for Timely Copyright Infringement Claims, but What Claims Qualify as Timely?Art may be in the eye of the beholder, but art valuation for tax purposes is in the eye of the IRS.
Improper deductions based on inflated art valuations are now in the agency’s crosshairs, part of an ongoing expansion of audit and investigations into charitable deductions for art
Continue Reading Avoiding IRS Art Donation Audits Requires an Up‑Front Checklist
On August 18, 2023, the Second Circuit held that Vermont Law School’s permanent concealment of two controversial murals located at the school did not violate the mural creator’s rights under the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (“VARA”).[1] In a unanimous opinion authored by Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston
Continue Reading Second Circuit’s Decision in Kerson v. Vermont Law School May Embolden Property Owners to Conceal Contentious or Inconvenient Art
A September 27, 2023 decision by a Manhattan trial court, Aicon Art LLC v. Aicon Contemporary LLC, No. 650580/2023, 2023 N.Y. Slip. Op. 33340(U) (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Sept. 27, 2023), involving a dispute between two businesses located in the same art gallery, serves as a reminder to New York
Continue Reading Aicon Art LLC v. Aicon Contemporary LLC: A Reminder About the Importance of Knowing Who the Client Is