On December 16, 2020, Judge Denise L. Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York found that London-based auction house Phillips Auctioneers (“Phillips”) properly terminated its agreement governing the auctioning of a Rudolf Stingel painting for force majeure after postponing its spring auctions in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2019, Phillips, one of the world’s leading auction houses, contracted with seller JN Contemporary Art (“JN”) to offer…

On December 15, 2020, Judge Lorna Schofield of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a Manhattan art gallery’s claims for insurance coverage for losses suffered as a result of the gallery’s suspension of business operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]  The decision—one of the first to address an insurance coverage claim under New York law for losses resulting from governmental shutdowns in the midst of the COVID-19…

On December 27, 2020, as part of the omnibus spending and COVID-19 relief bill (the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021), President Trump signed into law the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2020 (the CASE Act of 2020), which establishes a small-claims tribunal within the U.S. Copyright Office to adjudicate infringement cases. The New “Copyright Claims Board” The new tribunal, called the “Copyright Claims Board,” will serve as an alternative forum in which parties may voluntarily seek…

On November 24, 2020, parties to the 5Pointz litigation filed a Stipulated Settlement Agreement Resolving Plaintiffs’ Motion for Attorneys’ Fees and Costs (the “Agreement”), under which the defendant real estate developers agreed to pay over $2 million in attorneys’ fees and court costs to counsel for the aerosol artists of “5Pointz,” Eisenberg & Baum LLP. The Agreement is the latest (and likely final) development in the seven-year dispute over destruction of the famed 5Pointz art…

On November 2, 2020, Judge Allyne Ross of the Eastern District of New York dismissed copyright claims brought by Danish photographer Michael Barrett Boesen against a sports website for its use of an Instagram post by former top-ranked tennis star Caroline Wozniacki that itself used a photograph by Boesen.[1] In holding that “embedding” the social media post was “fair use”—and therefore not a copyright infringement—because of its news value, the Court in Boesen v.…

The New York Times reported on Tuesday, November 10, that the Metropolitan Museum of Art elected Candace K. Beinecke as co-chair of its board of trustees, making her the museum’s first female chair.  Ms. Beinecke, the senior partner and former chair of Hughes Hubbard & Reed, will jointly lead the board with Hamilton (Tony) E. James starting January 12, 2021.  Ms. Beinecke, who was the first woman to lead a major New York law firm…

On October 30, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), which administers and enforces American economic sanctions, issued an advisory titled “Advisory and Guidance on Potential Sanctions Risks Arising from Dealings in High-Value Artwork” (the “Advisory”).  OFAC considers “high-value” any artwork valued at over $100,000.[1] OFAC appears to have issued the Advisory in response to a bipartisan Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs report (the “Senate…