Monday, December 07, 2009

Weekend Links

A bunch of art law stories over the last few days:
  • Bloomberg reports that "Italian police seized art work valued at more than $149 million belonging to Calisto Tanzi, founder of Parmalat Finanziaria SpA, who is on trial for fraud linked to Italy’s biggest bankruptcy." Lots more from Greg Allen, who says "there's little to warrant the term 'masterpiece' at all, and it's hard to see how to get to the EUR100 million value the police claim the stash is worth. But it makes for a neater headline."
  • Edelman Arts apparently got a $750,000 default judgment against Gmurzynska gallery in a lawsuit over a damaged painting, then got US marshals to seize four paintings from the Gmurzynska stand at Art Basel Miami Beach "only 90 minutes before the first VIP guests entered" -- but the matter was then quickly resolved and the works returned. The Art Newspaper has the story here.
  • "French police detained 12 people in a sweep of a respected Paris auction house Wednesday after finding a stolen Courbet painting worth $1.3 million at an employee's house."
  • An update on a violent art theft in the U.K. a couple of years ago.
  • "A reminder of how clever fraud can be."