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museumVIVIEWSEWS A quarterly newsletter for small and mid-sized art museums Summer 2008 FAKES, FORGERIES... Unfortunately, effective legal protections Amazingly, forgers are always only one step INTELLECTUAL against art forgery are not automatic. The behind. responsibility of litigating against an art forger Other industries plagued by counterfeits PROPERTY usually rests with the private party who has have come together to staunch the flow of fakes. been injured; institutions or individual rights So must the art institutions and individuals who AND THE ARTS owners must formally register trademarks and want to preserve the public trust gather forces to by Joseph C. Gioconda, Esq. copyrights, and record them with U.S. Customs legislate, litigate, and educate. But first, they to receive protection. And when infractions must educate themselves about the wider dan- [Art forgery has become an epidemic, costing (read “thefts”) occur, attorneys and private gers from art fraud and forgery. Concerted collectors, museums, galleries—and the IRS— investigators are needed in civil litigations action will begin to make a difference. hundreds of millions of dollars a year. when law enforcement is disinterested. [Joseph C. Gioconda, Esq. is a partner Intellectual property laws have been effectively However, once properly protected, current at DLA Piper US LLP.] utilized to attack similar epidemics—fake luxu- federal trademark and copyright statutes allow ry goods, counterfeit pharmaceutical products, intellectual property owners to effect swift and unauthorized CDs/DVDs. The art world seizure and ultimate destruction of illicit goods. PHONY needs to collaborate and utilize the same laws In addition, the U.S. Customs Service is legally PHINGERPRINTS?? to combat the many fakes and forgeries that are empowered to detain, seize, and destroy glutting the market.] infringing products as they are imported into The matter of the “Matter Pollocks”—the the country. paintings that were found in a Long Island stor- Art forgeries are as old as art itself. But there To help itself against theft, the art commu- age locker by Alex Matter, the son pf Herbert is a growing sense in the art community that nity should be diligent in utilizing cutting-edge and Mercedes Matter who were close friends of current laws do not meaningfully combat the techniques. For example, new technologies Jackson Pollock—has more or less receded rising tide of spurious art. Due to technological such as embedding DNA in paint can help to from memory. In its place—nature despising a detect future forgeries of newly created art. developments such as the internet, online auc- Continued on page 3 tion sites, and the ease of international distribu- tion, the number of art forgeries is steeply on the rise. Art and antiquities of questionable authenticity now proliferate on a worldwide ...AND THE LAW and unprecedented scale. The production and mass distribution of ALI-ABA Misconduct, forged art hurts the legitimate art market: museums, galleries, collectors, artists, insurance HOLDS ANNUAL companies are defrauded and duped into over- Alleged or Real valuing forgeries. The same production and dis- CONFERENCE Conflicts of interest policies regulating tribution even robs the public treasury of tens board members and employees have come into of millions of dollars when tax deductions are The 36th annual conference on Legal Issues in play due to alleged misconduct among both taken for charitable donations of inauthentic Museum Administration, offered by the museum officials and board members. Acting items. Recent audits have detected thousands American Law Institute/American Bar Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of such donations. Association and sponsored at the J. Paul Getty Trust Lori Unfortunately law enforcement often places by the Smithsonian Fox suggested that museums art fraud and forgery low on the list of priorities Institution in cooperation write clearly stated policies to investigate. The rarity of criminal prosecu- with the American that cover trustees’ duties tions as well as the lack of severity in sentenc- Association of Museums, regarding museum business, ing has emboldened opportunistic forgers who took place in Scottsdale in the possibility of compro- are, by nature, sophisticated thieves constantly April. Museum staff mem- mised loyalty to the museum on the lookout for opportunities to copy any- bers, lawyers, and others, due to potential conflicts, and thing for a profit. constituted a gathering of how to resolve them. We can learn from experience with a similar 200-some participants. Possible conflicts of interest problem in the commercial world—the serious AAM President Ford W. on the part of trustees come threat posed by fake automotive parts, pharma- Bell opened the conference up frequently: a trustee could ceuticals, luxury goods and CDs/DVDs. As a with a statement about the be collecting the same art in result of lobbying efforts and collaboration, challenges facing museums which the museum is interest- intellectual property laws have been strength- today: tight government ed; a trustee could use inside ened and effectively utilized to attack the epi- budgets, the perception that information to purchase deac- demic of counterfeits of these commercial non-profit organizations cessioned art; a trustee could products. The art community, however, has not serve only the rich, and neg- use inside information to pur- been as diligent or aggressive in utilizing the ative press coverage about chase work directly from an existing intellectual property laws against art abuses, both perceived and artist before the museum forgeries. In order to address this problem, the real, by certain museums. announces a purchase which art establishment should develop meaningful Subsequent sessions dealt could drive up the prices for legal strategies that have teeth vis-à-vis a with ways of handling intellectual property, that artist’s work; a trustee could receive gifts relentless adversary. corporate governance, and conflicts of interest. from the museum or its business Continued on page 9 Top left: Thomas Rowlandson, Viewing at the Royal Academy (detail), c. 1815. Pen, ink, and watercolor over graphite on wove paper. In “Great British Watercolors,”Yale Center for British Art, CT Right: A.R. Valentien, Romneya trichocalyz (Hairy Matilija Poppy), c. 1908-18. Watercolor and gouache on paper. In “Albert Valentien’s Flora of California,” Indiana University Art Museum COLLEGE CORNER of fictions that have hardened into facts, GLOBAL EYES Asian Perspective moments that highlight the distinction by Nicole M. Roylance “Exhibiting Asian Art: A Curator’s View” between our ability to meet and read and the velocity at which we see and perceive. [In an effort to explore how global influences by Melissa Chiu, Director of the Museum at the Asia Society in New York City, followed Through their deliberate physical itineran- are reshaping art history and museum prac- cy, their concomi- tice, the Smith College Museum of Art (MA) Rampley’s address. Chiu discussed recent exhibitions at the Asia Society and their con- tant artistic prac- hosted the fifth Emily Hall Tremaine tices that restage Symposium, entitled “Global Eyes: New stant participation in and confrontation with globalization. Chiu spoke of the work of sev- performances in Ways of Seeing Art,” in conjunction with the black Atlantic colo- exhibition “African Beaded Art: Power and eral contemporary artists including Michael Joo, Ah Xian, Montien Budnma, Li Shan, nial history, these Adornment.” The slate of speakers represent- artists have created ed the perspectives of academics, artists, and Peter Peyer, and Saira Walsam. Chiu recog- nized that artists who ‘figurative fictions,’ museum profes- embodiments of sionals] recast tradition get more curatorial attention than imagined realities, . to articulate the he symposium those who continue tradi- T tions. self-authored sub- began with a jectivities that are keynote address borne of multiple by Matthew The Trans- identifications and Rampley, that pledge alle- Assistant Dean of national giance to their own the School of Arts internally defined and Media at the Experience cartographies.” University of Olu Oguibe, a Teeside in Nigerian-born artist and Middlesbrough, Associate Director of the Studying Mount Washington Glass Works, the United Institute for African Pitcher, c. 1875-1890. Regent pattern. Primitive In “The Brilliant period of American Kingdom. In his American Studies at the Cut Glass,” Mint Museum of Art, NC address, entitled University of Art “Whose Identity? Connecticut, spoke about Shelly Errington, Professor of Whose his own experience with Anthropology at University of California, Difference? globalization as an art Santa Cruz concluded the symposium with Reflections on historian and trans- “Globalizing Art from the Margins.” Postcolonial Art national artist, and how Errington spoke about the changes in imagin- Criticism,” he had been asked to ing “tribal” arts. First came “Authentic Rampley offered a Arnold Friberg, Mountie and Native American. make work as an Opaque watercolor on board. In “Seeing Red,” Primitive Art,” a discourse largely about arti- series of reflections Tweed Museum of Art, MN “African” artist. A recent United facts from former colonies and predicated on on the rise of a States citizen, placing his work with- ideas and a world situation that ended defini- postcolonial and global approach to art and in the context and questions of contemporary tively