Last month Leila was quoted by The Art Newspaper and the Observer. With the Art Newspaper she discussed trends in the art marketdue to the pandemic and resulting lockdowns. In talks with the Observer, Leila spoke about international copyright lawsand images in the public domain, including Sandro Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” painted over five centuries ago in 1486.
Today Leila was quoted in the NY Times about a recent NFT publicity stunt, the burning of a valuable drawing from Frida Kahlo’s personal diary. The destruction of the work involves copyright issues, fraud implications, and the violation of cultural patrimony laws. Read about the controversial act here.
Indian relief seized from the Nancy Wiener Gallery in Manhattan. (Photo Credit…Manhattan District Attorney’s Office)
Our founder, Leila A. Amineddoleh, spoke with the New York Times today about important revelations from statements submitted to the New York County Supreme Court by antiquities dealer Nancy Wiener during the pending criminal case against her. After pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy and possession of stolen property in connection with the trafficking of looted treasures from India and Southeast Asia, Ms. Wiener filed an allocution statement that reveals the inner workings of the antiquities market. (After pleading guilty, a defendant is often offered an opportunity to address the court in a so-called allocution statement to accept responsibility, express remorse, and explain circumstances that might be considered favorably in sentencing.)
Ms. Wiener and her late mother sold works to the New York elite. They are credited with growing the market for Southeast Asian art, selling works to John D. Rockefeller III, Igor Stravinsky and Jacqueline Kennedy. Works from their gallery also appear at major museums nationally and internationally. In March 2015, Ms. Wienerreimbursed the National Gallery of Australia over a million dollars for a Buddha she had sold the institution in 2007, after it was discovered that the export of the item may have violated India’s laws.
National Gallery of Australia’s Seated Buddha (Photo Credit: Chasing Aphrodite)
In 2016, federal officials and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office raided a number of galleries during Asia Week in New York. One of those galleries belonged to Ms. Weiner. The government seized objects from her gallery, arrested Ms. Wiener, and filed a felony complaint accusing the dealer of working with stolen objects for decades. Amineddoleh has spoken about the criminal case against Ms. Wiener in the past, including in 2017 when she was invited to speak during a conference for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The charges allege that Ms. Wiener obtained millions of dollars’ worth of stolen artifacts from international smugglers and sold them illegally — often through major auction houses. She is alleged to have laundered the illicit items by procuring restoration services to hide damage from illegal excavations, using straw purchases at auction houses to create sham provenances, and inventing and disseminating false histories to circumvent international patrimony laws that prohibit the exportation of looted antiquities. Upon her mother’s death, Ms. Wiener allegedly inherited hundreds of illicit items, discarded their records, and fabricated provenances. She then consigned hundreds of lots for sale at auction for millions of dollars.
In pleading guilty to these allegations, Ms. Weiner’s allocution statement reveals a great deal about the antiquities market. She characterizes that market as “a conspiracy of the willing,” saying that antiquities are often sold or consigned despite having suspect provenance — or no provenance at all. She also admits in detail to committing the common (and illegal) practice of fabricating provenance information to facilitate the sale or consignment of looted items. Despite claiming that her actions were motivated by her “passion” for the “great beauty” of historical objections, Ms. Weiner acknowledges that “it is not the right of any individual or institution to decide how to handle the cultural patrimony of another nation.”
Read more about the case in this article by Tom Mashberg.
Karen Zraick at the NY Times reported on looted antiquities that are being sold on Facebook. The problem is broader than just Facebook because looting networks sell their illicit wares through many online outlets. The internet is an appealing place for these illegal sales because buyers and sellers may easily remain anonymous. The sales also aren’t as widely publicized as in other marketplaces. And making it even more challenging is that communications move from these online marketplaces to encrypted channels like Whatsapp. Zraick references the important research and publications of Dr. Amr Al-Azm and Katie Paul. The two colleagues have called upon Facebook and other social media sites to handle looted goods more responsibly.
The discussions concerning illegal sales on social media sites illustrate the much larger issue of shutting down the looted antiquities market. Items illicitly removed from the ground are often difficult to trace. Unlike fine art, newly discovered antiquities have not seen the light of day for centuries. Fine art objects can often be traced back to their creator through examining prior sales and transactions. It is not the same with looted antiquities. Without a clear record of their discovery and removal, it may be difficult to determine from where these stolen objects were found. This problem is compounded by the fact that looters and their networks intentionally conceal this information to avoid penalties from law enforcement agencies.
It is necessary for online providers to ensure that they are not providing the black market with an unregulated marketplace in which to sell stolen cultural heritage.
Amineddoleh & Associates LLC is pleased to celebrate its first anniversary. The litigation and transactional boutique law firm is recognized for its work in the areas of art, cultural heritage, and intellectual property law.
Since our inception, we have been involved in numerous high-profile matters. The law firm’s founder Leila Amineddoleh served as a consultant to the Brooklyn United States Attorney’s Office in the civil case brought against Hobby Lobby (information about the case is available here and here), and likewise serves as a cultural heritage law expert to the New York District Attorney’s Office for antiquities investigations. In that role, she was involved in the repatriation of looted antiquities from Italy and the recent seizure of an ancient Lebanese bull’s head to Lebanon from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Amineddoleh also worked as a legal expert consultant for foreign governments in Europe and Asia on repatriation issues.
Amineddoleh & Associates serves the needs of private clients in a number of areas as well. The firm’s first year has been very active with a host of high-stakes art and intellectual property matters, including the following:
Selling art and collectibles (including military items and rare books) around the globe;
Serving as legal counsel for a leading international artist concerning his installation at the Smithsonian Institution;
Demanding restitution of a stolen multi-million dollar collectible now housed in a private European collection;
Recovering artwork for an artist after her sculpture was unlawfully withheld by a gallery;
Assisting international art dealers and collectors sell works within the US;
Presenting works for sale to artists’ foundation after performing due diligence and authentication;
Working with artists’ foundations for licensing and intellectual property permissions;
Advising on fair use issues for visual artists;
Providing legal counsel to entertainment marketing agencies, such as The Syndicate;
Drafting agreements in furtherance of the release of films, such as “Thirst Street;”
Seeking funding for film projects;
Demanding rescissions from auction houses for the sales of forged works;
Representing a nationally acclaimed magician to protect his intellectual property;
Establishing non-profit organizations and corporate entities;
Prosecuting trademarks, filing cease and desist demands, and developing intellectual portfolios;
Drafting contracts for authors, artists, and videogame designers;
Representing collectors before cultural ministries to receive permission for international sales.
Besides work for our valued clients, Amineddoleh & Associates has been actively weighing in on art and heritage issues in national and international dialogues. We’ve discussed art and heritage issues in numerous publications, including Live Science, Time Magazine, NY Times, Bloomberg News, and iNews. Our founder Ms. Amineddoleh appeared on two nationally aired radio shows, Knowledge@Wharton and WNPR, and she spoke at numerous conferences and presented guest lectures across the country.
Ms. Brennan assisted in co-teaching a course on antiquities at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. She is actively researching current international and federal legislation controlling cultural property, as well as conducting legal research into artists’ estates and foundations. We’ve been published extensively in sources such as Artsy and Artnet, and Ms. Brennan served as the research assistant for Maxwell L. Anderson’s book Antiquities: What Everyone Needs to Know.
The attorneys at Amineddoleh & Associates are pleased to work in the arts in other capacities. Ms. Brennan is a graphic designer and illustrator in her spare time. Ms. Amineddoleh performs classical piano music, and she curated an art crime exhibition at New York University. Michael Rose is a talented painter. We are proud to actively support the arts, as members of arts organizations, such as Lincoln Center Young Patrons, Young Patrons’ of the Hispanic Society of America, and Young Friends of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
We look forward to another exciting year ahead. In November, Ms. Amineddoleh will be organizing and speaking at a program on art collecting and due diligence for Harvard Business School at the Harvard Club in New York City. In February, she will be leading a lecture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the history of art collecting. We are proud to contribute to the Antiquities Coalition in a forthcoming policy piece for the group. In the fall, please look for our contribution to a forthcoming book from Bloomsbury Press, Nazi Law: From Nuremberg to Nuremberg.
Leila Amineddoleh’s letter to the editor appeared in the NY Times this week. With renewed interest in the marbles due to Amal Clooney’s involvement and the recent loan to the Hermitage, I took the opportunity to share some of my views on cultural heritage’s most hotly contested objects. Read the letter here
Last month Leila was quoted by The Art Newspaper and the Observer. With the Art Newspaper she discussed trends in the art market due to the pandemic and resulting lockdowns. In talks with the Observer, Leila spoke about international copyright laws and images in the public domain, including Sandro Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” painted over five centuries ago in 1486.
