Attribution of Authorship: Warhol
On 15 January 2010 another federal lawsuit was filed in New York City against The Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board. The first lawsuit was filed in 2007 by a London based collector, Joe Simon; the recent…
Is Your Copying Right?
An important and valuable one day seminar entitled ‘Copyright: Is Your Copying Right?’ was recently organised by the Institute of Art and Law, in association with the Art Newspaper and artlaw specialist solicitors Stephens Innocent. The…
Law Online: Artquest
From April 2003, the Artlaw articles published in this column over the past 26 years will be available online at www.artquest.org.uk. Artquest was established in December 2001 to provide advice and information to London’s professional visual artists…
Artlaw Services – A National Legal Service for the Arts
It is not widely remembered that William Hogarth, amongst his many other achievements, was the prime sponsor of a copyright statute, the Engravers' Copyright Act of 1735 – better known…
If two or more artists collaborate on a work of art, which one of them will own the copyright?
Who will own the copyright of the finished work? In the absence of a written contract between the artists, specifying who…
Contracts as easy as ABC: A Users Guide
This article provides simple and useful information on how to use Contracts. AGREEMENT Often the word agreement is used loosely to mean a contract. However, an agreement will only be a legally…
Credit Where It’s Due?
Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol met in New York City – firstly only to shake hands, in May 1963, outside the Museum of Modern Art where both were entering the opening of the show ‘Americans 63′.…
Mum’s the Word
Artworks are sometimes conceived which deliberately incorporate the law as an intrinsic element in the piece or its exposition: Christo’s Running Fence could only be realised by the artist successfully negotiating the right to place his fence…
What should I do if my dealer / gallery goes bust?
If you have been dealing with a dealer who has gone bankrupt you will need to contact his or her trustee in bankruptcy. Your claim will rank behind that…
Collaborative Works
Tracey Emin’s recent dispute with a north London primary school over the ownership and authorship of an artwork raised an interesting public debate, much of it focusing on the market value of art: ‘A £35,000 Tracey Emin quilt…
Dear Henry…
The recent articles on copyright brought the following correspondence, (genuinely received, but here suitably disguised to safeguard the artists concerned), which provides useful and intriguing illustrations of copyright law in operation. Dear Henry, I wonder if you would…
Dear Images
Dear Images: art, copyright and culture, eds Daniel McClean and Karsten Schubert, ICA and Ridinghouse, London, 2002, 503pp, b/w illus, pb, £25, 0 9541710 2 0. This is a tremendously good book. It is also very useful. Useful…
Contracts with Galleries
Artists leave works with galleries under the most flimsy and informal arrangements. Rarely are written agreements used to tell both sides where they stand, and as a result serious problems can and do arise: work is sold…
Copyright: A Suitable Case for Reform
Old Copyright law. ‘Who is going to achieve change? Not the Arts Council, not the RAAs, not the artists’ groups, not the arts organisations not the art schools, not the dealers and collectors; not…
Publication Right: The New Right
On December 1 1996 a new intellectual property law was passed in the UK which will give galleries, museums, public and private collectors and exhibitors a new economic power over artworks in their possession: Publication…
Sponsorship for artists
Sponsorship is when a business or company supports an artist. For established galleries, sponsorship looks like high profile exhibitions funded by big private companies. It’s a different story for individual artists looking to secure such support. This…
How can I protect live events and performance work under copyright law?
Copyright is hard to enforce for live events or performance, since the same or similar work taking place in a different context can be construed as being a…
The Next Moves Forward, part 1
For the third time in eight years, I set myself the task of examining the newly elected Government’s past achievements and future policies in relation to the visual arts. In my reviews of 1979…