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Amineddoleh & Associates LLC Spring 2022 Newsletter

by | Apr 5, 2022 | 0 comments

In our spring newsletter, Amineddoleh & Associates LLC is pleased to share some exciting developments that took place at the firm during the past winter. 

 

LITIGATION UPDATES

The mural in Des Moines, Iowa shown in the Super Bowl commercial.
Chris “CAW” Williams, Maze, 2018

Amineddoleh and Associates LLC is representing Iowa-based muralist Chris Williams in a case against the Midwest grocery chain, Hy-Vee. Williams’ mural in downtown Des Moines, Iowa was featured in a 2019 Superbowl advertisement promoting Hy-Vee’s partnership with Oprah Winfrey’s O, That’s Good! Brand without the artist’s authorization. The case involves copyright law and VARA (the Visual Artists Rights Act), given the defendants’ unlicensed use of the image and lack of credit to Williams as the artist of the mural. The lawsuit seeks  damages for the unlawful commercial use and appropriation use of Mr. Williams’ work. Read about the litigation in an article published by The Art Newspaper here and for more details, you can go to our website. 

 

ART & IP NEWS

Cultural Heritage and Art in Ukraine 

The world watched anxiously as tensions rose, and then erupted, between Russia and Ukraine in late February. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led to the most tragic casualty, the widespread loss of human lives. As this horror unfolds, art world professionals are also concerned about the loss of art and heritage while  the conflict rages. We published a blog post delving into  the risks to  art collections, museums, cultural sites, as well as other art and heritage in Ukraine posed by the conflict. It is available here. Several days later, we were disheartened to confirm that the conflict resulted in the destruction of 25 artworks  by renowned Ukrainian artist, Maria Prymachenko, after a museum in Ivankiv burned down. 

 

Restitution of Mexican Antiquities 

Cultural heritage is also at risk across the Atlantic Ocean. We published a  blog post discussing how  Pre-Columbian/Pre-Hispanic objects are often looted or smuggled from Latin America due to their high resale value and sold abroad. Recently, however, Mexico has taken several steps to recover its cultural artifacts and enforce national patrimony laws. Read more about the restitution of Mexican antiquities and the role of international cooperation on our website.  

 

Dealer with Ties to Looted Antiquities Detained in Paris

Leila Amineddoleh at the repatriation ceremony in 2020 in her role as the Egyptian cultural heritage law expert.

Roben Dib, a dealer suspected of supplying high-profile museums (including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre Abu Dhabi) with looted antiquities, was recently transferred to France to face charges of gang fraud and money laundering. Authorities believe that Dib acted through an intermediary (expert Christophe Kunicki) to engage in the large-scale trafficking of looted artifacts from Egypt and the Middle East. Previously, Kunicki had sold a looted golden sarcophagus to the Metropolitan museum for €3.5 million. A subsequent criminal investigation by Assistant District Attorney Col. Matthew Bogdanos exposed serious flaws in the museum’s provenance research, after which the museum issued an apology and formally repatriated the sarcophagus. Our founder served as the Egyptian cultural heritage law expert in this matter and attended the repatriation ceremony in 2020. You can read more about the sarcophagus’ journey here.

 

 

LAW FIRM UPDATES AND EVENTS 

Art Law Conferences 

In March, our firm’s founder, Leila Amineddoleh, served as  a panelist at Notre Dame’s Journal of International and Comparative Law Symposium. At the symposium, “International and Comparative Approaches to Culture”, Leila discussed antiquities disputes and repatriation of cultural heritage. 

At the end of March, Leila served as the keynote speaker at Yale University’s conference, “Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future.” This event focused on the systematic looting of Dura-Europos that took place during the Syrian civil war. Specifically, Leila presented on the history of cultural heritage looting and modern efforts to prevent such plunder. Read more about this conference here. 

Examples of Benin Bronzes, looted art from Africa at the center of repatriation discussions.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Additionally, in January Leila participated in  the webinar “Repatriation of African Artifacts: A Challenge for History and Property Rights,” hosted by African Liberty. The restitution of looted artifacts from Africa has  formed part of  an ongoing debate in several countries, particularly in Europe and the US (as former colonial powers). Leila discussed the recent focus on remedies for these issues, particularly the repatriation of the objects to their countries of origins and the grounds for doing so. We previously explored the subject of the Benin Bronzes in our ongoing Provenance Series, which you can access here.

 

 

Upcoming Conferences

This spring, we have additional conferences at which members of our firm will be speaking to look forward to.

Our associate, Claudia Quinones, will be presenting at a workshop  organized by The European Society of International Law (ESIL) Interest Group ‘The EU as a Global Actor’ (IG EUGLOBAL). The event will be hosted by the University of Glasgow and focuses on “International Law and Global Security: Regulating an Illusion?”. Specifically, Claudia will speak on ‘Cultural Protection as a Key Component of Global Security.’ Information about the event can be found here. 

The Parthenon Marbles on display at the British Museum in London.
Photo Credit: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Leila will also bring her expertise as a speaker to  the 28th Annual Cultural Property Conference at Cardozo School of Law. As part of a panel on cultural property and international human rights trends, Leila will discuss the policies and polities of the Parthenon Marbles. Register and read more about this conference here, and learn more about the Parthenon Marbles on our website. 

 

 

We look forward to both Leila’s and Claudia’s discussions at these upcoming events. 

 

Art Law Publications 

A number of recent cases have left some artists uneasy about the scope of the Fair Use Exception and the use of copyrighted materials in appropriation art. This has led to a shift in the landscape of copyright law. In fact, last month the U.S. Supreme agreed to hear arguments in the closely-watched case involving the Warhol Foundation.  Leila commented on these shifts to the legal landscape in an article she wrote for the Institute of Art & Law titled “Fair Use in US Law: The Path to Marano v. Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Please contact us or the Institute of Art & Law for a copy of Leila’s informative article. 

Associate Claudia Quinones was also published in the Santander Art and Culture Law Review (SAACLR). Her article, “On the Borderline – Using National and International Legal Frameworks to Address the Traffic of Pre-Columbian Antiquities between Mexico and the United States,” discusses historical and recent approaches to the illicit traffic of antiquities originating in Mexico. It further explores legal and non-legal remedies to curb this traffic. You can read her article on the SAACLR website.

 

CLIENTS AND REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

Leader in the NFT Market 

World’s first NFT vending machine

As discussed in our last newsletter, Amineddoleh and Associates has been one of the first law firms to work in the NFT space – both through our creation of the unique purchase and sale agreement for NFTs. Our clients include Monax, Nifty Gateway, private buyers and sellers, and corporations involved in investing in these assets. Our founder has also participated in a number of conferences focused on this topic, at locations including the University of Zurich, the Foundation for Art Law, and the New Museum in New York City. 

As NFTs continue to dominate the art market, Leila had the opportunity to talk with the Associated Press about the world’s first NFT vending machine.

 

 

Music Spotlight 

Art law encompasses any artistic expressions, including music. We have written a number of blog posts discussing the protection of musical instruments as well as the provenance of musical instruments and manuscripts. Given our passion for the subject, we are excited to announce that Amineddoleh and Associates is currently working on a number of music related matters. 

The first matter involves valuable stolen classical music instruments which we are seeking to return to their rightful owner (our client).

In addition to working with a number of high-profile clients on their intellectual property portfolios, our firm is also representing Danish-born producer and songwriter Jonas Jeberg,  known for writing and producing songs like Panic! At the Disco’s “High Hopes”, the Jonas Brothers’ “Rollercoaster,” Demi Lovato’s “You Don’t Do It For Me Anymore,” and Selena Gomez’s “Fetish” ft. Gucci Mane, as well as many others. Amineddoleh and Associates is advising Jeberg on his trademark  portfolio. 

 

Upcoming Happenings 

After our client’s successful sale of a work by David Hammons at Sotheby’s in March (a sale that realized a price greater than the projected estimate), our client has three additional works that will be up for auction at Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Sale in May. We look forward to attending this auction as the art market continues its post-pandemic upswing.

 

The Mummy’s Curse (Provenance Series: Part XX)

by | Oct 29, 2021 | 0 comments

Cover of 1909 Pearson’s Magazine featuring the Unlucky Mummy

Just in time for Halloween, this spooky entry in our Provenance Series explores the strange case of the “Unlucky Mummy,” an ancient Egyptian artifact held by the British Museum since 1889 and rumored to have played a part in several tragic events during the last 150 years. The name of the object is misleading, as it is not an actual mummy, but rather a painted wooden “mummy board” or inner coffin lid depicting a woman of high rank. Mummy boards were placed on top of mummies, covered in plaster, and decorated elaborately with protective symbols of rebirth. The Unlucky Mummy was discovered in Thebes, an ancient hub for religious activity and the site of a renowned necropolis. It dates back to 950-900 B.C.E. While the lid does contain hieroglyphic inscriptions, these only refer to religious phrases; the identity of the deceased remains unknown. In the early 1900s, British Museum specialists believed that she may have been a temple priestess or a member of the royal family, but this was never confirmed by supporting evidence.

According to the museum’s records, the mummy board was originally acquired by an English traveler in Egypt during the 1860s-1870s. The mummy itself was most likely left in Egypt, since it has never formed part of the British Museum’s collection. The traveler was part of a group of Oxford graduates touring Luxor, who drew lots to haggle over the coffin lid. All four companions suffered unfortunate fates soon after this purchase. One of the men disappeared into the desert, one was accidentally shot by a servant and had his arm amputated, one lost his entire life’s savings, and one fell severely ill and was reduced to poverty. The mummy board then passed to the sister of one of the men, Mrs. Warwick Hunt, whose household became plagued by a series of misfortunes. When Mrs. Hunt attempted to have the coffin lid photographed in 1887, the photographer and porter both died, and the man hired to translate the hieroglyphs committed suicide. Clairvoyant Madame Helena Blavatsky allegedly detected an evil influence emanating from the mummy board, and convinced Mrs. Hunt to dispose of the object by donating it to the British Museum. Yet tales of the curse would follow. In 1904, journalist Bertram Fletcher Robinson published an article in the Daily Express titled “A Priestess of Death,” detailing the mummy board’s grisly exploits. When he died suddenly three years later, this was attributed to the Unlucky Mummy’s vengeance from beyond the grave. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes and avowed spiritualist, claimed that the mummy’s spirit had used “elemental forces” to strike down Robinson.

One of the more sensational stories is that the mummy board was on the SS Titanic in 1912 and caused the ship to sink. However, this is only a rumor; the Unlucky Mummy has been on public display since the 1890s, except during WWI and WWII when it was placed in storage for safekeeping. It first left the British Museum in 1990 for a temporary exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, and it made it back to London safe and sound. In fact, much of the mummy’s malevolent backstory was invented by English editor William T. Stead, who possessed a fascination with the supernatural. Ironically, Stead perished on the Titanic – but the Unlucky Mummy’s legacy lives on. It is allegedly responsible for multiple murders, illnesses, injuries, hauntings, eerie noises, flickering lights, and other suspicious activity.

For those who wish to see the Unlucky Mummy in person, it is currently located in Room 62 of the British Museum. Hopefully, its curse won’t follow you home…

 

The Cat’s Meow: Feline Art Lovers

by | Dec 10, 2020 | 0 comments

The concept of “heritage,” while commonly used in reference to artwork, can also apply to living beings. This includes animals who occupy certain social and cultural functions. Today’s post explores a unique phenomenon in cultural institutions: the role of cats.

One of the Hermitage Cats (courtesy of beautifulrus.com)

Cats have been the subject of fascination – and even worship – for humans since ancient times. In Egypt, the cat-headed goddess Bastet was renowned as a protector. The Temple of Bastet, a 2,200-year-old temple in the city of Bubastis, yielded a treasure hoard in 1906, comprised of gold and silver items. Nowadays, felines can be found protecting cultural institutions in the flesh – or rather, fur. For instance, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia has a population of approximately 50 cats in its basement, which has hosted feline residents since the mid-1700s. Empress Catherine the Great bestowed them with the status of guardians of the art galleries, as a gesture of gratitude for their eradication of rodents from the premises. The museum’s cats have become extremely popular with the local community, giving rise to the Day of the Hermitage Cat initiative in 1999. Over 800 photographs and prints were submitted and displayed in 2020 as part of the annual tradition. But these cats have captured hearts abroad as well. Recently, a French philanthropist left a provision for the cats in his will. The funds will likely be used to repair their basement home, ensuring that the cats will have shelter for years to come.

Gli in Hagia Sophia (courtesy of TRT Worldwide)

Other cities have also embraced cats as heritage guardians. Rome has supported its feline population by officially declaring that they form part of the city’s “bio-cultural heritage.” The law of the surrounding Lazio region states that stray cats have the right to stay wherever they are born, and are entitled to food and medical assistance. Notably, the worship of cats reached ancient Rome from Egypt; legend has it that these denizens accompanied Cleopatra on her visit to the Eternal City. Cats were particularly valued by the Romans since they helped curb rodent-borne diseases, such as the bubonic plague. Currently, the archaeological site of Torre Argentina – where Julius Caesar was famously murdered – has hosted a Cat Sanctuary since 1993. A revolving group of “cat ladies,” or gattare, from various countries provide the residents with food and care. Interested individuals can even “distance adopt” one of these historical strays. This “suburban oasis” has become a vital part of the community and attracted the patronage of actors, diplomatic families, and even a former opera singer. In the words of the Sanctuary, these “aristocratic cats rule over their temples with pride.” The Protestant Cemetery, the final resting place of Romantic poets John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, has another dedicated sanctuary where cats have a peaceful place to roam. The cats provide an interactive experience for visitors while drawing in donations for the site’s upkeep, thanks to a charitable organization.

Doorkins Magnificat (photo courtesy of CNN)

Perhaps not surprisingly, religious institutions have also welcomed four-legged visitors. This past October, London’s Southwark Cathedral laid to rest Doorkins Magnificat, a former street cat who found a home in the church in 2008. As one might expect from a cat with such an illustrious name, Doorkins was well-loved by visitors, congregants, and clergy; she even met Queen Elizabeth II. As a mainstay of the community, Doorkins found fame in a range of church-sponsored merchandise – including a children’s picture book – and had her own Twitter account with thousands of followers. Doorkins’ farewell was streamed online, and it was the first service held for a cat in the illustrious history of the cathedral. The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey also lost its internationally-acclaimed resident cat, Gli, this year. Gli was born in the museum and received much attention on social media and national news channels. She was considered a local celebrity and received a visit from former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009, gaining over 130,000 followers on Twitter. Upon her death, the beloved cat received thousands of tributes by fans and art historians before being buried on site.

 

 

 

Amineddoleh & Associates’ Interview about the Controversial King Tut Exhibition

by | Jul 14, 2020 | 0 comments

Our founder, Leila Amineddoleh, was interviewed by Turkish news channel, TRT, to discuss a controversial international exhibition of objects from the tomb of Egypt’s famed King Tutankhamen. (A video of the interview is below.) The discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922 sparked a resurgence in the interest in ancient Egypt. Any exhibition related to his remains and treasures is sure to attract huge revenue and worldwide attention. The exhibition, Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, features 150 objects owned by Egypt.  

Nations enact cultural heritage laws to protect their heritage for the benefit of their citizens, future generations, and all mankind. Artifacts have a value greater than their commercial prices, and it is the responsibility of nations to protect these resources. In fact, Egypt has some of the world’s oldest laws protecting antiquities and regulating their trade. Egyptian antiquities have long been a source of fascination for Western collectors. Due to that market interest, Egypt has protected its artifacts with legal tools. The nation actively safeguards its antiquities with cultural heritage protection laws dating back nearly two centuries. The first law, an 1835 decree, banned the unauthorized removal of antiquities from the country. During the intervening nearly two centuries, the nation has periodically updated those laws to effectively protect ancient sites and prevent looting.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities (Egypt’s cultural ministry) may have broken the nation’s cultural heritage laws by engaging a private commercial company, IMG, to exhibit valuable artifacts in shows around the world. However, there are some vague terms in Egypt’s cultural heritage law that might make it difficult for an Egyptian lawyer to successfully sue the Supreme Council. (For example, the law does not define what makes certain artifacts “unique” and prohibited from loans.)

It is easy to understand how some Egyptians feel betrayed by the Supreme Council. The nation’s rich cultural heritage was not intended to be exploited by government officials for their own personal use or financial gain. The nation’s antiquities play a central role in its citizens’ identities and the identity of Egypt. Some Egyptians feel that artifacts from King Tut’s tomb are a national treasure and so they should not be touring internationally, but should remain in Egypt, their home. The Arab republic’s cultural heritage laws were passed with the purpose of protecting heritage for future generations and to protect the property from exploitation and destruction. In fact, the introduction (written by Zahi Hawass) of the 2010 amendment to Law 117 addresses the importance of heritage protection for the “honor of Egypt and Egyptian history.” It also states, “The memory of the homeland is the right of future generations, and our duty to them is to keep this memory alive and vibrant.”

Copyright: National Geographic

Whereas the Egyptian government touts the value of the international exhibition, stating that it has brought in millions of dollars to the country, there is potential harm. The objects from the exhibition will not be back in Egypt in time for the monumental opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (a $1 billion project), and the exhibit may divert tourism revenue away from Egypt and instead to the commercial exhibition company, IMG. In addition, any international exhibition is accompanied by risks inherent in traveling and reinstallation.

Various elements addressed in the BBC documentary about the exhibition seem to suggest that the loan is the result of political corruption, with former and current members of the Supreme Council of Antiquities receiving financial benefits by agreeing to the loan. Private companies have hired former and current members of the Supreme Council to serve as tour guides, sell products, and engage in commercial activity related to Egyptian antiquities. The current exhibition schedule is indefinitely delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it will be interesting to see how the controversy is resolved and whether the artifacts from the “Boy King” will return home in time for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum.