Daily Dispatch

January 28th 2022
Image: Thierry Mugler, spring 1998 couture show. via surface mag.
  1. Remembering Thierry Mugler, the World’s Most Daring Couturier – In 2019, more than 150 garments starred in “Thierry Mugler: Couturissime” at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts that shed new light on his artistic approach. “For me, beauty comes from the freedom to dare to be different,” Mugler once told the New York Times. “It’s all about being extremely yourself.” – Read more on Surface Mag
  2. ASIA: Art Basel Hong Kong Postponed to May 2022 – On January 28, Art Basel announced that its annual Hong Kong edition has been delayed from March 22–26 to May 27–29, with preview days on May 25 and 26, due to Hong Kong’s restrictions on large-scale events imposed amid current outbreaks of Covid-19 – Read more on Artasiapacific
  3. Hermès Is Suing a Digital Artist for Selling Unauthorized Birkin Bag NFTs in the Metaverse for as Much as Six Figures – The case is the first major example of a brand taking legal action over the use of its trademarks in the metaverse, and its outcome may shape the way artists and companies function in this still-unfamiliar territory – Read more on Artnet
  4. A German Museum Accidentally Loses Access to Two Highly Valuable Cryptopunk NFTs – A copy-paste error resulted in the ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe to lose access to two Crpytopunks, the valuable NFTs created by LarvaLabs. Instead of sending the Cryptopunks to a valid online address, software programmer Daniel Heiss accidentally sent them to an inaccessible wallet – Read more on Surface Mag
  5. Art Dealer Eva Presenhuber Will Expand Her Gallery Again with an Outpost in Vienna – After expanding with a second location in Zurich, the veteran dealer is returning to her home country of Austria with an under-construction space in Vienna’s Tony first district steps away from parliament and the Kunsthistorisches Museum – Read more on Surface Mag
  6. Copyright: Castelbajac Condemns a Cosmetics Brand – The Paris judicial court condemned the cosmetics group L’Occitane for “unfair and parasitic competition” and “copyright infringement” to the detriment of the stylist Jean-Charles de Castelbajac for the use of his graphic universe, made up of cherubs and primary colors – Read more on Le Journal des Arts
  7. The 10 Best Worst NFT Disputes of 2021 – Including the ‘Burnt Banksy’ stunt, the Mars House dilemma and several Twitter Escapades – Read more on Guest Work Agency
January 24th 2022
Image: Mason Rothschild’s ‘Birkin NFTs’.
  1. ‘Can Everyone Agree This Is a Beautiful Painting?’: A Divided U.S. Supreme Court Reviews a Rare Art Case Over a Nazi-Looted Pissarro – Should the Supreme Court find that the case should be heard under California law, the case will return to the lower court to be readjudicated. If the court upholds the earlier ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the painting will stay in Spain. A verdict is expected in July – Read more on Artnet
  2. Nathalie Bondil Settles with Montreal Museum of Fine Arts – the former director and chief curator of the Museum who sued that institution’s board of directors for wrongful termination and defamation following her controversial 2020 firing by board chair Michel de la Chennelière, has reached a settlement with the entity – Read more on Artforum
  3. Hermès Suing American Artist Over NFTs of its Birkin Bags – French luxury group Hermès has started legal proceedings against an American artist over virtual versions inspired by its famous Birkin bags. Mason Rothschild creates digital art that he sells as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which can be traded online but ownership cannot be forged – Read more on The Guardian
  4. Is Instagram Censorship Changing Art Itself? – Instagram’s guidelines explicitly allow nudity in art, but this has often proven subjective. Despite stating “photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures” are acceptable, scores of artists’ images are removed for violations including “nudity” and “sexual activity” – Read more on The Art Newspaper
  5. Art Basel Hong Kong Hedges Bets for March fair with Covid-contingency plan in May – Well over half the galleries participating in the fair are opting for satellite booths as travel restrictions continue to disrupt large-scale events – Read more on The Art Newspaper
  6. Gagosian Announces New Gallery in Gstaad, Switzerland – Located in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps, Gstaad is well-known for its luxury hotels and ski resorts. Due to zoning and building restrictions, the area has maintained its old-world elegance and is considered as one of Europe’s most expensive alpine villages – Read more on Hypebeast
January 18th 2022
Image: rare art book Jodorowsky’s Dune, the guidebook to a film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. via esquire.
  1. Louvre Might Take Legal Action For Unauthorized Use In Presidential Campaign – A spokesperson for the Le Pen campaign responded that the Louvre does allow footage to be shot at its premises as long as it is non-commercial, which the video purportedly is – Read more on Design Taxi
  2. Model Sues After Her Likeness Was Made Into NSFW Adult Doll Without Consent – Yael Cohen Aris, an Israeli model, is suing an adult doll company for stealing her likeness without her consent, which, until recently, matched right down to her name and beauty mark – Read more on Design Taxi</li >
  3. Crypto Group Spent $3M On ‘Dune’ Book, Mistaking It For Rights To The Series – The copy was bought by a cryptocurrency group, TheSpiceDAO, for USD 3 million. However, with this purchase, TheSpiceDao mistakenly assumed it owned the rights to Dune as a whole. The group announced its intentions to make the book public by digitizing the copy, turn its storyboards into a new animated series, and tap digital artists for projects based on the work – Read more on Design Taxi
  4. New York Weighs Legislation to Create Sustainability Regulations in the Fashion Industry – Last week, New York lawmakers unveiled the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act. If passed, it would make New York the first state to approve legislation that would hold the fashion industry’s biggest players accountable for their role in perpetuating climate change. The law will apply to clothing and footwear companies with more than $100 million in revenue doing business in New York – Read more on Surface Mag
  5. Phillips Announces Launch of Fiduciary Services Branch – This new international team will engage with lawyers, trustees and fiduciaries managing high value artworks and collections for their clients by putting at their disposal the combined legal, financial, and art market expertise of the Phillips Legal and Trust and Estates departments – Read more on Phillips
January 13TH 2022
Image: via Selfridges
  1. Full Customs Controls start on 1 January 2022 in UK – HMRC are urging businesses to prepare for customs changes that come into effect on 1 January 2022 – Read more on gov.uk
  2. Sotheby’s Reportedly Selects Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley to pursue IPO at around $5bn – The auction house, which had been publicly traded for decades before being bought by Patrick Drahi for $3.7bn in 2019, could return to public trading later this year – Read more on The Art Newspaper
  3. What Retailers Selling NFTs Must Know About Legal Regimes – Read more on Law360
  4. Barbara Kruger Asks Justices To Mull Warhol Fair Use Ruling – In a 34-page amicus brief filed on Monday, Kruger and art scholar Robert Storr backed the Andy Warhol Foundation’s petition to review the Second Circuit’s March ruling that a series of Warhol prints infringed Lynn Goldsmith’s copyrighted photo of Prince – Read more on Law360
  5. Selfridges Is The World’s First Retailer To Sell ‘Over-The-Counter’ NFTs – Selfridges is set to be the first retailer in the world to debut fixed-priced, “over-the-counter” NFTs, according to reports by fashion and retail trade publications. Proceeds made from the physical and NFT sales will go to the Fondation Vasarely Museum – Read more on Design Taxi
  6. Georgia O’Keeffe Painting Damaged By Tarantula Goes On Show After Restoration – Things were looking rosy until a tarantula tunneled through the roof at her 18th-century Abiquiú house and apparently caused a leak, bringing water damage to the art – Read more on Design Taxi
January 10th 2022
Image: the Sandbox Metaverse (via Surface)

 

  1. Artchives: Singapore Artists’ New Rights – Automatic copyright ownership, greater access to past material and new attribution rights are some of the significant changes that the Singapore arts community can expect by the end of 2021. These will form part of a new omnibus Copyright Act, prepared after a comprehensive five-year consultation process with private and public stakeholders – Read more on Art and Market
  2. A Court Dismissed the Lawsuit Against Nirvana Brought by the Former Baby Who Appeared on the ‘Nevermind’ Cover – A lawsuit against Nirvana brought by the 30-year-old man who appeared as a nude infant on the cover of the band’s seminal album Nevermind has been dismissed by a U.S. district court judge – Read more on Artnet News
  3. A Swiss Museum Will Relinquish Ownership of 29 Works From Gurlitt Trove – The vast collection, which includes pieces by Max Beckmann, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, was originally amassed by a German dealer in Nazi-looted art – Read more on Hyperallergic
  4. A Former Sotheby’s Accountant Claims He Was Denied Employee Benefits – The lawsuit alleges that Sotheby’s denied full time employees their benefits by misidentifying them as freelancers; additionally, Fenwick’s is claiming that Sotheby’s didn’t pay him in a timely manner and that the auction house violated the Freelance Isn’t Free Act – Read more on Observer
  5. The Buyer of This Mansion Will Also Get One in the Metaverse – ONE Sotheby’s International Realty and Voxel Architects are building a mansion in Miami that will also come with a mirror-image property in the metaverse – Read more on Surface Mag
  6. Auction houses to ride the boom in 2022 – How long can the boom in the soaring art market last? Experts are willing to bet on at least another six months as asset appreciation, tech-sector wealth creation and Covid-related stimuli tick over into 2022 – Read more on FT

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