Daily Dispatch

January 6th 2022
Image: Pulp Fiction (1994)
  1. Quentin Tarantino Plans to Sell ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFTs, Defying a Miramax Suit – Tarantino’s latest plans to sell the NFTs this month could prompt Miramax to demand an emergency block of the auctions until the legal issues are resolved – Read more on NY Times
  2. A Banksy-Themed Nightclub Is Raging in Mazatlan – Opened in 2021 by Grupo Marea, the hospitality group behind local destination restaurant La Marea, Banksy Social Club is festooned with art-themed gimmicks. La Marea describes [it] as “an eclectic homage to rebellious art” and “art in all of its expressions, with references to various trends and artists from a diversity of genres” but ventures into the tricky territory of appropriation – Read more on Surface Mag
  3. The First NFT Billionaires: OpenSea Founders Each Worth Billions After New Fundraising – The NFT craze has minted its first billionaires. With estimated 18.5% stakes in OpenSea, cofounders Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah are each worth about $2.2 billion, Forbes estimates – Read more on Forbes
  4. What are NFTs and What Does It Mean to Own One? – If you’re confused as to what the hell NFTs are, particularly art NFTs, here’s a new article by Alfred Steiner that pretty much walks you through and safely out of the NFT hell – Read the paper on SSRN
  5. What Collectors Need to Know About Art Shipping – “Insurance policies have exclusions around art transport or coverage of art when it’s not in the home,” said Blechman. “If a buyer is relying on their own policy to mitigate risk while artwork is in transit, it is important to understand if a work is covered and under what circumstances.” – Read more on Artsy
  6. Germany’s Green Vault Museum Jewellery Heist; Six on Trial – A court date has been scheduled for the six German nationals implicated in the daring Green Vault Museum heist, where more than 100 pieces of ‘priceless’ jewellery – including diamonds, pearls and rubies from Dresden Castle in Saxony – were stolen in November 2019 – Read more on Jeweller
January 3rd 2022
Image: Stolen Bored Ape NFT
  1. 10 Museums We Look Forward to in 2022 – A fresh crop of cultural destinations should be available to visit next year, from long-awaited national institutes in Norway to a museum celebrating the Korean-American diaspora in Los Angeles to an AI institute in Seoul – Read more on The Spaces
  2. 15 Most Innovative NFT Artists of 2021 – Damien Hirt, Hackatao, Fewocious, Justin Aversano and ofcourse Beeple make the list – Read more on Decrypt
  3. ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFT Lawsuit Presents New IP Battleground – Miramax also brings claims for copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition. Beyond the famous parties involved, Miramax v. Tarantino is notable because it marks the first opportunity for a federal court to opine on intellectual property rights in the NFT context – Read more on Alston & Bird
  4. Inside the Legal Thicket Ensnaring Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers – This legal episode, you’ll notice, implicates Purdue Pharma and its employees but none of the Sacklers themselves – Read more on the Observer
  5. 7 Questions You Have About the Manhattan DA’s Agreement with “A New York Antiquities Collector” – In his final days as Manhattan’s district attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr. stirred the cultural property world with the announcement of a controversial immunity deal between his office and New York hedge fund giant and philanthropist, Michael H. Steinhardt – Read more on Cultural Heritage Lawyer
  6. Stolen Bored Apes Worth $1.9M ‘Frozen’ by NFT Marketplace OpenSea – Todd Kramer, who runs the Ross+Kramer art gallery in New York, tweeted that he had clicked on a link that appeared to be a genuine NFT dapp (decentralized application). But it turned out to be a phishing attack – Read more on Decrypt
  7. Artists Say Plagiarized NFTs Are Plaguing Their Community – Many artists say their work was initially seized from DeviantArt, a popular online art community. Because transactions on the blockchain are inherently anonymous, “OpenSea has no way to track down scammers to collect damages on behalf of a victim” says one group – read more on Hyperallergic
DecemBER 24th 2021

 

 
Image: Art Installation via Unsplash
  1. Reality Kicks in as HMRC Launches Art Market ‘Interventions’ – AMPs that are seen to have a higher risk profile should expect more frequent and intense supervision. Interventions may be desk-based (conducted by phone and in writing) or face-to-face or both; desk-based interventions may lead to an on-site visit where it becomes apparent that a more in depth investigation is required – Read more on Rtalwar Compliance
  2. French Billionaire Drahi Weighs IPO of Sotheby’s Auction House –Drahi has held preliminary discussions with potential advisers about a U.S. listing of Sotheby’s as soon as next year, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private – Read more on Bloomberg
  3. TeamLab Wins Its Lawsuit Against a Chinese Company That Replicated One of the Collective’s Immersive Art Experiences – Setting an important precedent for the copyright of experiential art in China, the immersive art sensation teamLab has won a lawsuit against a company that imitated one of the group’s signature light shows – Read more on Artnet
  4. The Vatican Faces a Copyright Infringement Lawsuit – Street artist Alessia Babrow has sued the Vatican, alleging that the Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Vatican City State copied her artwork without her permission and reprinted it as a stamp – Read more on Art Law Perspectives
  5. Andy Warhol Foundation Petitions US Supreme Court to Review Ruling Over Prince Portrait – This escalation marks a new turn in a dramatic series of court proceedings, the outcome of which could affect artists who depend on appropriation for their work, from Richard Prince and Jeff Koons to emerging artists whose practices involve found imagery and materials – Read more on The Art Newspaper
december 20th 2021
Image: Jeff Koonsʼ “Made in Heaven” series | courtesy Luxembourg co
  1. Jeff Koons Stole ‘Made in Heaven Art’ From Sculpture Made for Italian Porn Star – Artist Michael Hayden says in the copyright infringement suit that in 1988 he sculpted a snake wrapped around a pedestal for Ilona Staller, a well-known adult film star and Italian parliamentarian known as “Cicciolina.” – Read more on NY Daily News
  2. Monument to Tiananmen Square Massacre Dismantled in Hong Kong – A sculpture made by Jens Galschiøt to memorialize the lives lost during the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 was dismantled as guards prevented journalists and students from recording its removal, reported Artnet News – Read more on Art News
  3. Melania Trump Launches NFT Platform—With a Painting of Herself – Her first NFT offering, titled Melania’s Vision (2021), is a watercolor of the former First Lady’s eyes by French artist Marc-Antoine Coulon. A portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to educating children aging out of foster care in computer science skills (though how large that portion will be is unclear) – Read more on ArtNews
  4. New York Copyright Lawyer Suspended Indefinitely From Practice – Richard Liebowitz who regularly represents artists in copyright litigation indefinitely lost his right to practice in the state because a federal court’s interim suspension applied reciprocally – Read more on Bloomberg Law
  5. Tate Visitors Looking At More Than Art, Supreme Court Told – Residents of luxury London apartments with windows adjacent to the neighboring Tate Modern museum have privacy rights and the gallery is contributing to an illegal nuisance, their lawyer argued to the U.K.’s Supreme Court – Read more on Law360
  6. Instagram Now Lets Users Block Others From Embedding Their Posts – The move comes after pleas by the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPPA) who were troubled over how the feature could be exploited to bypass copyright restrictions – Read more on Design Taxi
november 25th 2021
Image: KAWS, ‘URGE’ (portfolio set of 10 prints), 2020 | courtesy of Artsy

 

  1. KAWS Launches Lawsuit Against Digital Marketplaces For Peddling Fake Goods – A new lawsuit alleges that a number of items out there are fakes. Brian Donnelly (aka KAWS) and a related company under the name of KAWS have sued several websites vending artworks that the artists says are counterfeits – Read more on Design Taxi
  2. Artist Wins Chance to Appeal Against Ex-Husband’s Copyright to Her Work – An artist has been granted the right to appeal against a precedent-setting court decision that gave her ex-husband joint ownership of the copyright to her work – Read more on Stuff
  3. Public Knowledge Urges Congress to Make the Copyright Office Review Artist Termination Rights – the NPO have been trying to make sense of the Termination Right for artists since 2019. Now, an ongoing campaign urges Congress “to direct the Copyright Office to conduct a formal study of the termination right and to find out how artists are able (or not) to exercise it” – Read more from Public Knowledge
  4. Met Signs Loan Exchange Agreement with Nigeria: ‘It Shouldn’t Be Limited to the Benin Bronzes’ – On Monday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art made the return of three looted objects to Nigeria official. At a repatriation ceremony held today in New York, the museum also signed an agreement to partner with the Nigerian government to collaborate on art loans and scholarship – Read more on Art News
  5. “Fearless Girl” Gets Taken to Court – The artist, Kristen Visbal, “made twenty-five editions of ‘Fearless Girl’ and two artist’s proofs. But the Wall Street firm that commissioned it has sued, “accusing her of breach of contract, and of causing ‘substantial and irreparable harm’ to Fearless Girl and to [the firm] by selling copies.” – Read more on The New Yorker
  6. Minting Platform CXIP Wants to Create a Huge Community of NFT Creators – the NFT minting platform CXIP announced today that they’re launching a decentralized autonomous organization whose aim is to create the world’s largest coalition of NFT creators. the platform still has fundamental problems within the NFT space that they want to fix. Namely: uncertain permanence, royalties and creator-owned contracts – Read more on Observer

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