On Wed, 13 Mar 1996 21:13:27 +0000  Murph the Surf wrote:
>I'm aware of copyright suits involving one artist using another's work
>(Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenburg, George Harrison) but I'd be interested
>in examples of any suits that museums have been involved in, with or
>without names and details. Particularly where museums either felt they
>lost money because of copyright violation or were sued by a holder who
>thought they did.
>
>Talking about copyright often makes me feel like we are dividing up the
>loot before we've robbed the bank.
>--
>ROBBIN MURPHY, creative director, artnetweb
>[log in to unmask]  -- http://artnetweb.com
>426 Broome Street, NYC 10013  212 925-1885
>NEW THIS WEEK: http://artnetweb.com/resource/new.html
>
Yes, we've been sued. It's not a Jeff Koons-George Harrison-size story,
I'm afraid, but indicative of the type of problems museums should be
aware of - and too often aren't.

We have in our collection a number of works by a certain artist, one of
the founders of Israeli Art. Fortunately, and exceptionally, we knew
exactly who the artist's heirs and therefore copyright holders were. We
assumed, of course, that they were the copyright holders for ALL of the
artist's works. That one word, "assumed,"  is always the problem.

We licensed a color transparency of one of the artist's works in our
collection to a local publisher.  Another local company, a small Tel
Aviv firm, sued the  publisher, and us, for infringement of copyright.
They had in their possession a hand-written note from the 1930's, in
which the artist had sold to them his copyright in a certain series of
lithographs, in which was included the work in question. I called the
artist's daughter, and she confirmed that she did remember that her
father had done this.

In addition, the publisher to whom we had licensed the transparency
claimed in their defense that we had not informed them that the artist's
copyright was held by a third party and that they would have to clear it.
Our lawyer immediately informed us that we had very little to go on.  All
of the claims were, apparently, accurate.  In fact, he pointed out that
we did not even have the right to photograph the lithograph in question
and create that color transparency without the copyright holder's
permission, despite the fact that the work is in our collection.

Fortunately, the case was settled out of court, and we were saved a
potential $20,000 fine. The lessons learned were valuable.  Our staff now
takes very seriously the subject of copyright, and know not to touch
these things without at least consulting this department, which acts as
the copyright office of the Museum.
-------------------------------------
Name: amalyah keshet
visual resources / the israel museum, jerusalem
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Date: 04/01/96
Time: 07:09:03
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