Lawsuits

Canadian gallery sues Norval Morrisseau’s estate for breach of contract and defamation, seeking $1m

EA Studios alleges that the estate and its director bad-mouthed the Calgary-based gallery in an attempt to steal its customers

New York art adviser Lisa Schiff sentenced to prison for fraud

Once a high-profile adviser to elite art collectors, Schiff will spend 30 months in prison

US Supreme Court reopens lawsuit over Nazi-looted Pissarro painting

The Supreme Court’s order requires the decades-long dispute over a painting at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid to be re-examined in light of a new California statute

Californian cultural sites at centre of tribal feud over casino

Koi Nation’s casino application approved but Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria claim sovereignty of Sonoma County land

Monaco court annuls charges against Dmitry Rybolovlev

It found that the extraction and use of the telephone of Rybolovlev’s lawyer Tetiana Bersheda violated of the European Convention on Human Rights

Copyright-infringement lawsuit over Jeff Koons’s infamous ‘Made in Heaven’ series is dismissed

The creator of a sculpture that Koons and the politician and pornstar Ilona Staller posed on for the series sued 30 years after the series’ debut

Orlando Museum of Art and family of late director fired over Basquiat forgery scandal drop lawsuits

After Aaron De Groft’s death last month, the museum and his family do not find it “prudent or cost effective” to continue litigation

Lawsuit to halt demolition of Manhattan's Elizabeth Street Garden claims it is a protected ‘physical and social sculpture’

Activists say the Visual Artist Rights Act covers the garden, which the city wants to destroy to make way for affordable mixed-use housing

Suspended prison sentences sought in Versailles lead poisoning trial

Restorers were contaminated by lead dust when they scrubbed down the sculptures and decoration of the royal opera in the Château de Versailles

Justin Sun, the buyer of Sotheby’s $6m banana, sues megacollector David Geffen over $78m Giacometti sculpture

Sun claims he is the rightful owner of Le Nez, which is purportedly now in Geffen’s possession in New York

Judge orders sale of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Price Tower for original price of $1.4m

The Oklahoma skyscraper’s crypto-enthusiast owners had attempted to auction the tower after reneging on an agreement to sell it to a local company that restores historic buildings

Insurance companies fight $19.7m claim over Basquiat forgeries

The owners of works the FBI seized from the Orlando Museum of Art have filed an eight-figure claim, but the insurers say “coverage is unavailable because… the property was inauthentic”

Mary Miss and Des Moines Art Center settle lawsuit over Land art piece's demolition

The artist had sought to force the museum to repair her 1996 outdoor installation, while the institution claimed it could only afford to tear it down

Artist rejects deal with Icelandic company implicated in Fishrot scandal

The artist Odee rejected a proposal by the fishing conglomerate Samherji that would have required him to pay £1 and hand over control of the website; now the company wants £206,000

Family of late Marlborough Gallery chairman Pierre Levai sue his lover, claiming she ‘kept him sick, starved’

Max and Rosemary Levai claim Pierre’s “long-time paramour” Marcia Levine is responsible for his death and should not receive any of his inheritance

Christie's is suing winning bidder of record-breaking Chardin for failure to pay

Italian investor Nanni Bassani Antivari secured the still-life Cut Melon with a €26.7m bid in June, but has yet to send the auction house any money

US judge allows artist Deborah Roberts's copyright infringement lawsuit against New York gallery to proceed

The lawsuit brought by Roberts in 2022 has received a mixed ruling from Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall, but she denied dealer Richard Beavers's motion to dismiss it

Former museum curator accuses city in Arizona of censorship in lawsuit

The former chief curator of the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum is suing the municipality for allegedly ordering the removal of a print from a Shepard Fairey exhibition

Crime news

Co-creator of UndeadApes NFTs found guilty of fraud and money laundering in 'rug pull' scheme

Berman Jerry Nowlin Jr, known in the NFT community as "Repulse" and “Zayous”, faces up to five years in federal prison

Nudes by major Indian artists F. N. Souza and Akbar Padamsee embroiled in 'obscenity' dispute

The seven works were seized by Mumbai customs last year due to their sensitive content

Fate of Frank Lloyd Wright’s only skyscraper remains uncertain amid duelling lawsuits

Oklahoma’s Price Tower is caught in a tug-of-war between its current crypto-enthusiast owners, Wright’s conservancy and a company that restores historic buildings

Dealer Yves Bouvier owes more than $800m in back taxes, Swiss court rules

Meanwhile Dmitry Rybolovlev, with whom Bouvier settled a high-profile legal saga last year, has had charges against him dismissed

Kabir Jhala. With additional reporting by Vincent Noce

Artist sues US city that cancelled her residency over a pro-Palestine painting

Danielle SeeWalker and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado are suing the town of Vail, alleging its decisions violated her free speech rights

Technologycomment

Can artists protect their work by suing AI companies?

When it comes to copyright infringement, establishing culpability and illegality in the age of artificial intelligence is murky

Curator Virginia Brilliant settles her lawsuit against Robilant + Voena gallery and its co-founders

Brilliant, who had sought at least $3m for claims related to her consulting work for the gallery, has withdrawn her complaint as part of the agreement

Three months after shutting down, Philadelphia’s University of the Arts files for bankruptcy

The university’s leaders still face a host of legal disputes, but the filing may allow them to liquidate real estate holdings that have been valued at $87m

Former university museum director drops lawsuit seeking to block sale of works to fund dormitory repairs

The deaccessioning dispute at Valparaiso University’s Brauer Museum of Art centres on works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Church and Childe Hassam collectively valued at up to $15m

Holocaust-restitution firm Mondex settles legal feud with heir over fees for $24m Chagall painting

"Over Vitebsk" by Marc Chagall hung at the Museum of Modern Art for decades until 2020, when it was restituted to the the heirs of a Jewish-owned art gallery in 1930s Berlin

US artists score victory in landmark AI copyright case

A federal judge in California has blocked an attempt by several AI companies to have portions of a copyright case dismissed

Man who claims he was injured in 'sprinkle pit' sues Museum of Ice Cream

A father who sustained a fracture during a visit to the immersive attraction in Manhattan in 2023 is suing the company for unspecified damages