On April 2, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art when it held in a summary order that the Met’s use of a 1982 photograph of famed guitarist Eddie Van Halen (the “Photograph”) in an online catalogue in connection with the Museum’s exhibition of rock-and-roll musical instruments is sufficiently transformative to constitute “fair use” under Federal copyright law.[1] The Met included…

On February 3, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Germany in a dispute over whether American courts may preside over a lawsuit brought by the heirs of German Jewish art dealers who alleged that the Nazi regime coerced the 1935 sale of certain artworks. Background As we reported in November 2020, heirs of German Jewish art dealers who had once owned a collection of prized medieval religious art works known as…

After nationwide government shutdown orders forced museums, galleries, theaters and other performance venues—as well as restaurants and other places of public accommodation—to close their doors, many organizations turned to business interruption insurance policies to try to recover some of their devastating financial losses.  As previously covered on this blog in September and January, insurance companies have denied those business interruption insurance claims, arguing that financial losses caused by the pandemic are not “physical losses”…

Just as Marcel Duchamp shocked the art world in 1917 with his absurdist creation of Fountain—a “readymade” sculpture consisting solely of an upside-down urinal with a signature on it—creators of non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”) are now pushing the boundaries of the conventional art world by creating works that exist only in the digital sphere.[1]  The unique “absurdity” of NFTs breeds desirability, and collectors around the world are jumping at the chance to buy the…

On January 1, 2021, Congress voted to override President Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021,[1] which includes provisions that will have significant implications for the antiquities market, and could eventually impact the art market as well. The New Legislation Extends Bank Regulations to Dealers of Antiquities Tacked onto the sprawling National Defense Authorization Act is the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AMLA”)[2], which provides measures intended…