Law

Copyright case brought by Naf Naf creative director against Jeff Koons finally comes to court

Franck Davidovici first accused the artist of plagiarising his 1985 advertising campaign almost four years ago

Ivorycomment

The UK’s imminent law against the trade in ivory is a serious threat to liberties, says former Lord Chief Justice

Civilians will be allowed to enter your house, break open containers and use “reasonable force”

How two missing legs helped the restitution of an Italian secrétaire worth €2m

The Italian state has a permanent right to confiscate illegally exported work

Lawnews

Court rejects claim to Matisse owned by National Gallery

Rebuffing heirs, an appeals panel in New York says the court lacks jurisdiction

Swiss prosecutor returns 'Mesopotamian' terracotta animal made by dealer's 11-year-old-daughter—along with 5,000 seized antiquities

A further 6,000 items belonging to Ali Aboutaam of Phoenix Ancient Art are still held by authorities in Geneva

Goudstikker heir files petition for rare rehearing of Cranach claim

Marei von Saher asks an appeals court in California to reconsider her case against the Norton Simon Museum

Lawnews

Parviz Tanavoli banned from leaving Iran over legal dispute with former gallery owner

Maryam Goudarzi claims that the artist should return six 1972 sculptures worth $6m to her, but Tanavoli says they were swapped legally for five newer works

Timeline: the legal battle over Cranach’s Adam and Eve

The events that led up to the ruling in favour of the Norton Simon Museum after it was sued by the heir of Dutch dealer Jacques Goudstikker over ownership of the paintings

Lawnews

Norton Simon Museum can keep Nazi-looted Cranachs, US court rules

Decision should put decade-long legal battle between museum and heirs of art dealer Jacques Goudstikker "to rest"

Lawnews

Legal battle over Met's famous Picasso reignited by estate

The museum stands by its ownership of The Actor, which it says was never in the hands of Nazis

Lawnews

Publishing company American Image Art strikes back in Robert Indiana case

Defendants in the much-publicised lawsuit allege the Morgan Art Foundation “duped” the US artist into giving up certain rights to his art

Owner of £10m Giotto to appeal High Court ruling that painting left Italy unlawfully

Judge finds in favour of Arts Council England, but collector Kathleen Simonis argues Italian laws are incompatible with EU free movement of goods

Lawnews

Iranian gallerists released on bail after two years in Tehran prison

Karan Vafadari and Afarin Neyssari paid a bail of around $10m according to sources but still await appeal request

Will Robert Indiana’s legacy get stuck in a legal battle?

The artist wanted his home to become a museum but his 2016 will is being challenged

Lawnews

Art educators take London's National Gallery to employment tribunal in 'gig economy' dispute

Artists and lecturers are crowdfunding for legal fees in bid to win employee status

Lawnews

Claim on Guelph Treasure can go to trial in US federal court

Lawyers for the Prussian Cultural Foundation argued that it was not “genocide” when the objects were sold in 1935

Lawnews

Dalí foundation sues California museum for use of artist’s name and image

Monterey’s Dalí17, which displays the 500-work private collection of the Ukrainian-born real estate developer Dimitry Piterman, features the Surrealist’s face—complete with upturned moustache—on its logo

Lawnews

Appeals court largely strikes down California’s artist resale rights law

The decision limits the rule to a narrow one-year window of secondary market sales—but what does it mean for the future of droit de suite in the US?

Guy Wildenstein cleared of tax evasion for a second time in Paris

Franco-American scion of art dealing dynasty was accused of hiding art and other property worth hundreds of millions of euros from French authorities

Lawnews

The UK’s ban on ivory sales will not protect the elephants

A spokesman for Traffic, the leading researchers of trade in endangered species, says it is the Asian market that drives the poaching, not the Western market

Lawnews

Art dealer sues Poland over its failed efforts to extradite him from the US

After offering to return a work looted by the Nazis in exchange for his family’s former real estate, Khochinsky was placed under house arrest in New York and faced a 10-year prison sentence in Poland

Lawnews

Jeff Koons and Larry Gagosian file motion to dismiss collector’s 'impatient' demands for work he did not receive

Steven Tananbaum sued the artist and gallery in April for failing to deliver works he bought in 2014

Lawnews

Anish Kapoor sues NRA for copyright infringement

An image of his Chicago sculpture Cloud Gate was used in a video by the gun lobby that the artist says “seeks to whip up fear and hate”

Lawnews

Top experts dispute Italian police claims about seized ‘antiquities’

“I cannot imagine where a terracotta life-size horse head could come from in antiquity,” a specialist says

Lawnews

Getty says it will appeal Italian court order to return Victorious Youth

An Italian judge has found that the work was discovered in Italian water, despite decades of rulings to the contrary

Beatrix Ruf, former Stedelijk Museum director, cleared of alleged conflicts of interest

Report commissioned by Amsterdam city council finds that she complied with Dutch regulations

Lawnews

New York judge orders two Schiele works sent to Christie’s, where they could be auctioned

But the watercolours are currently at the centre of a closely watched restitution lawsuit

French dealer awarded rights to Chinese artist T'ang Haywen's work

Paris court decision ends legal saga that began in 1991, when the artist died without an heir

Once bitten, twice shy: Canadian artist caught using comedians' photos without permission promises no more funny business

Despite controversy over public art project in Calgary, Derek Michael Besant has been commissioned to create a similar work in Ottawa