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Amineddoleh & Associates in the News

by | Jan 26, 2023 | 0 comments

Our founder, Leila A. Amineddoleh, was featured in the Washington Post last week. She discussed challenges facing claimants following a complaint made against the Guggenheim Museum for retaining a Picasso that was allegedly sold under Nazi duress. Read more here. Leila was also quoted this week in an article for ABC News discussing the ethical implications of resolving cultural antiquities ownership disputes. Read her take here.

Additionally, Maria T. Cannon contributed an opinion to the Wall Street Journal last week. She commented on the ethical implications of attorneys who may be tempted to use ChatGPT while representing clients. Find the article here.

Season’s Greetings

by | Dec 14, 2022 | 0 comments

In this annual newsletter, Amineddoleh & Associates is pleased to share some major developments that took place at the firm and in the art world during 2022.

 

LITIGATION AND SETTLEMENT UPDATES

 

The “Goodwill” Marble Bust

The Marble Bust looted during WWII that was found in Texas and will be returned to Germany

Possibly the most talked about art law matter of the year was the return of an ancient marble bust to Germany. The 2,000-year-old artifact likely originated from Rome, but it was acquired by Bavarian King Ludwig I and then placed in a German museum from where it was looted during World War II. Our client, Laura Young, bought it at a local goodwill shop and ultimately returned it to Germany. It was an honor to advise her and work with her to negotiate the internationally celebrated return.

 

Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

At the start of the year, we filed a litigation in Iowa on behalf of a muralist, Chris Williams. His work was featured in an advertisement that aired during the Super Bowl. We are currently representing him in a lawsuit for copyright and a violation of his moral rights on the Visual Artists Rights Act.

 

ART & IP NEWS

 

One of our favorite things about the art market is that there is always something exciting happening in the art world. Some of our most popular blog posts from this year are found below.

 

Celebrities and Fossil Collecting

Skeletons in the American Museum of Natural History

In this blog post, our firm examined legal matters involving dinosaur fossils and skeletons, including purchases made by Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, and The Rock. Auction houses have faced growing interest in buyers seeking dinosaur bones. The sales have gotten a lot of attention, perhaps due to the trend of major celebrities making large, public bids for the pieces. As a result of the publicity, countries around the world from which fossils are illegally excavated have presented auction houses with ownership claims, based on their country’s property laws. Copyright law was also an issue for auction houses selling dinosaur skeletons this year because skeletons that are partly comprised of replica bones may come with intellectual property rights in the manufactured pieces.

 

Fashion Law and Protecting Brands

When does the law protect fashion brands? And what is the cost to other artists? Our firm answered these questions in this posts inspired by the Fall 2022 Fashion Weeks taking place around the world. Prominent fashion designers have been known to incorporate logos of other brands into their designs, often as a part of social commentary. Even where artistry is the intent behind the repurposed logo, these designers face financially devastating intellectual property claims from major the brands and companies who own the rights to the logo. Our firm considered how to balance protecting consumers from consumer confusion with giving designers the artistic liberty to create fashion that sparks social commentary. Read more on our website.

 

New York Raises Holocaust Awareness Through New Law 

Gustav Klimt’s Woman in Gold

New York State now requires museums to post which artworks on display have links to the Holocaust. The New York bill, which was signed into law on August 10, 2022, accompanied two other Holocaust related bills aimed to combat rising reports of antisemitism. Our firm revisited the difficulty of proving provenance for items acquired during the Holocaust and shortly following WWII. The restitution of these works to families from which the pieces were stolen is incredibly healing.Unfortunately, such claims for the return of priceless works of art often have to overcome enormous legal hurdles, such as the difficulty of proving provenance in court and FSIA claims brought by countries who now claim possession. Read more on our website. 

 

 

LAW FIRM UPDATES AND EVENTS 

 

New Team Members 

Our firm welcomed two new members to join our team, Yelena Ambartsumian and Maria Cannon.  Yelena joins the firm as Counsel, while Maria joins us as an associate. We are proud to have Yelena and Maria as members of our team, and we wish them both a warm welcome.

 

Firm Founder Listed by Chambers

This year, firm founder Leila A. Amineddoleh was recognized by Chambers and Partners High Net Worth Guide for her work in Art and Cultural Property Law. The publication named Leila “a brilliant attorney,” and “a go-to for cultural property matters.” The publication also remarked on her passion for art law and her wealth of experience in the field. Read more here.

 

Art Law Conferences 

Congratulations to our firm’s founder Leila A. Amineddoleh, who successfully chaired the 14th Annual NYCLA Art Law Institute, one of the most anticipated events of the year. Earlier in the year, in March, Leila presented the keynote speech at Yale University’s conference “Dura-Europos: Past, Present, and Future.” The conference focused on the systematic looting of Dura-Europos that took place during the Syrian civil war and during prior millennia. Leila presented on the history of cultural heritage looting and modern efforts to prevent such plunder. Read more about the conference here.

Leila was also a speaker at the Salmagundi Club, one of the oldest arts organizations in the U.S. Her other speaking engagements included moderating a panel for Art Appraisers’ Association Art Law Day and for Fordham’s Intellectual Property Law Journal’s 30th Annual Symposium, “Duplicate, Decolonize, Destroy: Current Topics in Art and Cultural Heritage Law.”  In addition, she spoke at conferences hosted by Cardozo School of Law and Notre Dame School of Law. At Cardozo School of Law, Leila spoke on a panel at a symposium discussing cultural property ownership. Read more here. At Notre Dame’s Journal of International and Comparative Law Symposium, she served as panelist at the symposium, “International and Comparative Approaches to Culture”, and discussed antiquities disputes and repatriation of cultural heritage.

Associate Claudia Quinones presented on the “What’s New in Art Law?” panel at the 14th Annual NYCLA Art Law Institute. Her presentation covered title and ownership disputes, new technologies, and climate change activism in the art world. Details about the conference can be found here.

Yelena’s speaking engagements included Fordham Law School’s 30th Annual Intellectual Property Law Journal Symposium as a panelist on “Erased: Protecting Cultural Heritage in Times of Armed Conflict.” She also was a panelist at American University of Armenia’s Center for Truth and Justice Inaugural International Conference, “Cultural Heritage at Stake: How to Preserve, Mitigate Damage, and Punish Destruction.” Read more about the conference here.

 

IN THE PRESS

Leila appeared in the New York Times a number of times this year, in addition to Artnet, The Art Newspaper, the Observer, the Washington Post, USA Today, People Magazine, and Town + Country Magazine. She discussed a variety of topics, including the art market, cultural heritage disputes, Nazi-looted art, intellectual property disputes, and art collecting practices. Leila also appeared on WPIX-NY and in a number of podcasts.

 

CLIENTS AND REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

Sculpture Garden Commission at the Smithsonian Institution

We are very proud to have served as legal counsel to famed artist Hiroshi Sugimoto for a number of his commissions, including his highly anticipated sculpture garden at the Hirshhorn Museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Auction Sales

We worked with a number of clients to assist them with consigning art for sale at auction. One of our clients is the collecting family that consigned three works by David Hammons for the Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction and one work at the Contemporary Curated sale earlier in the spring. Sotheby’s touted these works and their provenance, after the paintings remained with our clients for nearly five decades. All four of the works performed well, with two of them selling for above their high estimates.

Trademark Clients

We continue working with brands, artists, and companies by advising and serving as trademark prosecutors. Included among our clients are luxury watch brands, fragrance companies, and musicians, including multi-platinum songwriter and produced Jonas Jeberg.

Advising Art Market Players on New Platforms

While we often work with traditional art market participants (including artists, collectors, foundations, auction houses, museums, art advisors, and art experts), we are also happy to be at the forefront of the art and cultural world. As new art platforms and technologies develop, we are pleased to work with exciting online galleries, NFT platforms, novel art collecting exchanges, and artists exploring new media. We look forward to continue cutting edge work in the art sector.

 

On behalf of Amineddoleh & Associates, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season and a wonderful and prosperous new year.
 

 

 

 

Organized Crime and Art Theft

by | Sep 9, 2021 | 0 comments

Courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

On August 4th Raffaele Imperiale, a criminal linked to the theft of two paintings from the Van Gogh Museum, was arrested in Dubai. Imperiale is a member of Camorra, an organized crime syndicate in Italy, and has been one of Italy’s most wanted fugitives for years. In addition to drug trafficking and organized crime, Imperiale is also known for his involvement with the theft of two paintings by Vincent van Gogh (a crime we covered in an earlier blog post). In 2002, the two works were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The two valuable works, View of the Sea at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, were taken by two art thieves who broke into the museum through the roof of the building. The heist took under 4 minutes, but had an effect on the art world, as Van Gogh is a perennial favorite.

In 2016, Imperiale’s connection to this theft was announced after Italian officials found the paintings in a farmhouse on his property in Castellamare di Stabia, a town near Naples. Imperiale denied his role in the heist, claiming that he purchased the two paintings from the thieves shortly after the works were stolen from the museum. Imperiale admitted that he had hidden the masterpieces on his property with the hopes of leveraging his knowledge about the whereabouts of the painting to negotiate a more lenient sentence. After a long search, Imperiale was arrested in Dubai and will be extradited to Italy where he will face charges related to drug trafficking and organized crime.

 

 

 

Leila Amineddoleh Featured in Art She Says Summer Riviera Issue

by | Aug 16, 2021 | 0 comments

Our founder has been featured in the Art She Says summer 2021 French Riviera Issue. Her contribution to the magazine discusses art theft, forgeries, government ownership of cultural heritage, World War II restitution matters, and artists’ rights, with a particular focus on the firm’s work and her experience as an art lawyer. This includes our firm’s recent representation of the Italian and GreekMinistries of Culture in federal court. These were landmark cases, sending the message that foreign sovereigns can continue to monitor the art market without fearing lawsuits when making inquiries as to potentially looted antiquities’ whereabouts. The article also touches on the forfeiture of antiquities from Hobby Lobby, since Leila served as a cultural heritage consultant for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in that matter, and another forfeiture case concerning a 13th century painting.

Leila’s contribution concludes with an overview of due diligence and intellectual property rights, which are crucial for private collectors, particularly with the vast number of forgeries and stolen works on the market. The magazine also includes photographs taken by Leila. We invite you to visit the Art She Says website and read the issue to discover more about Leila’s contribution, as well as the other interesting and valuable articles in the publication. Art She Says is the leading digital magazine that empowers women in the art world through the curation of luxury content, networking events, and art advisory services.

An online copy of the article is available HERE.

The Earliest Nativity Scenes and a Nativity Theft (Provenance Series: Part XII)

by | Dec 24, 2020 | 3 comments

Nativity scenes – or depictions of the Holy Family, angels and shepherds adoring the newborn Jesus –  are common in Christian iconography, particularly during the Christmas season. Italian churches often commemorate the holiday with elaborate nativity scenes, or presepe, populated with dozens of figures from everyday life. In Naples, the tradition has extended to include celebrities and world leaders in addition to villagers and shopkeepers. One local craftsman even makes his presepe out of pizza dough. The world’s first nativity scene is attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi. He staged his production, in 1223, in a cave near Greccio, Italy. Saint Francis is said to have been inspired during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land where he visited Jesus’s traditional birthplace. Once back in Italy, he sought to direct the celebration of Christmas away from gift giving back to the worship of Christ. His presepe used live actors and farm animals to recreate the now famous biblical scene. The world’s first live nativity scene was an instant success, receiving the blessing of Pope Honorius III.

Elaborate Presepe, courtesy of Evelyn Dungca

Thereafter, nativity scenes became widely popular, becoming a staple in every Italian church within a hundred years. As statues began to replace live actors, nativity scenes attracted notable collectors such as Charles III, King of the Two Sicilies, who helped spread their popularity internationally. Many nations have since adopted their own unique style of nativity, including hand-painted santons in Provence, France; hand-cut wooden figures in Austria and Germany; intricate szopka in Poland; and inclusion of a Caganer (a defecating figure) in nativity scenes in Catalonia, Spain. A tradition emerged in England to eat a mince pie in the shape of a manger during Christmas dinner, a practice which was eventually outlawed by Puritans in the 17th century, calling them “Idolaterie in crust.” Despite this temporary prohibition, nativities are now found throughout the world, in locations ranging from religious institutions to shopping malls, and whose inclusion on public land has even sparked legal controversy in the U.S. Some reoccurring nativity scenes, such as the Vatican’s annual production in St. Peter’s Square and the Metropolitan’s baroque nativity scene in its Medieval Art section, have become famous in their own right. In contrast to these large-scale pieces of pageantry, painted depictions of the nativity are usually placed in an intimate setting and invite the viewer to engage in contemplation.

 

In honor of the Christmas holiday, we also examine the magnificent painting Nativity with Saints Lawrence and Francis by Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The work was painted in 1609 in Palermo, Sicily, where Caravaggio relocated after fleeing from Rome after murdering a man, committed after a fight over a tennis match. Caravaggio was recognized for his volatile personality and his dramatic paintings in the chiaroscuro style. His life has been described as “a negroni cocktail of high art and street crime.” Despite his moral failings, Caravaggio’s stunning Nativity held pride of place over the altar in Palermo’s Oratory of San Lorenzo for 360 years, until unidentified criminals stole the painting in 1969. During an autumn storm, thieves carefully removed the painting by cutting the canvas from the wall. They fled and escaped with their prize rolled up in a carpet. Given that the painting measures three by two meters, and the skillful nature of its removal, many experts believe the most likely culprits are members of the organized crime group Cosa Nostra, also known as the Sicilian mafia. There is tragic symmetry that a work first conceived following a terrible crime has since been lost to the criminal underworld.

Caravaggio, Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence

Cosa Nostra is no stranger to the world of art crime. In 2016, two stolen Van Gogh paintings were recovered at the Italian home of a drug smuggler with ties to the mafia. The paintings are worth an estimated $56 million (50 million euro) each and had been missing for 14 years, since their theft from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This precedent, along with testimony from witnesses inside the criminal organization, has led Italian law enforcement to believe that Caravaggio’s missing Nativity is potentially in Cosa Nostra’s hands. However, the self-serving nature of testimony from witnesses who wish to escape criminal charges is not always reliable. Furthermore, there have been conflicting accounts of the Nativity’s fate. Some have said that the work is still whole; others, that it was cut into pieces to facilitate its sale; and finally, that the painting had been stashed in a barn where it was consumed by rats and hogs, and ultimately burned.

 

Currently, it is impossible to say where the Nativity is, or in what state of disrepair. The theft is considered one of the most significant art crimes in history, and the Carabinieri, Interpol, and the FBI have all collaborated in the investigation. New information has come to light within the past two years indicating that the painting may be “still alive” and in circulation in Europe. The painting could be in criminal hands, serving as collateral for drug deals and kept as a bargaining chip for future negotiations with law enforcement. Prosecutors continue to follow the trail of breadcrumbs and hope that they will meet with success. Importantly, although the Nativity’s value has been estimated at $20 million, its black market resale price would be much less – possibly a tenth of the total value.

 

There is a bittersweet coda to this saga, as a life-size reproduction of the Nativity was commissioned in 2015. The replica, created by Factum Arte, is the result of painstaking research melded with technology. The company used a slide of the painting and black-and-white photographs to study the composition and surface of the work, including brush marks. To recreate the colors used by Caravaggio, technicians based their reproduction on the artist’s paintings in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, which date from approximately the same period. While a facsimile is no substitute for the real thing, it gives viewers a chance to appreciate the Nativity’s “lost beauty” and learn about how technology can be used to create detailed reproductions of works that have been lost or damaged. The replica currently occupies the Nativity’s original location as a placeholder until the painting can be found. Hopefully, authorities will be able to recover this masterpiece and return it to its rightful place.

 

Amineddoleh & Associates wishes you all a safe and joyful holiday season.