Our Art Law lawyers negotiate, litigate and advise clients on the full range of legal issues that arise concerning works of art, the art market and the art world. We represent artists, individual and institutional collectors, galleries, dealers, auction houses and museums in high-profile, high-stakes matters.

Our lawyers have deep knowledge and wide experience in the specialized law of art and are equipped with the full resources of a top international law firm. In addition to our partners who deal with art-specific areas of the law, we draw on the skills of lawyers in a variety of other areas for our art clients, including alternative dispute resolution (arbitration and mediation), banking and secured transactions, bankruptcy, intellectual property and information technology, tax and trusts and estates.

We have dealt with a wide variety of objects, including drawings, paintings, installations and sculptures by or purportedly by, among others, Basquiat, Chagall, de Kooning, Hopper, Kandinsky, Koons, Lichtenstein, Malevich, Malliol, Matisse, Monet, Motherwell, Picasso, Pollock, Rembrandt, Rothko, van Gogh and Warhol; medieval Judaica; antique furniture; photographs; Hollywood memorabilia; Art Deco and French Crown jewelry; and Native American ceremonial objects.

Among the art-specific issues we regularly advise on or have litigated are:

antitrust law in the art market
appraisals
art dealers’ duties and rights
artists’ estates and foundations
auctioneers’ duties and rights
authentication committees and catalogues raisonnés
authenticity disputes
bankruptcy, creditors’ rights and security interests in works of art
consignment agreements
copyrights in works of art and reproductions of works of art
criminal trial and grand jury subpoenas
cultural patrimony laws, regulations concerning the import and export of art, and international cultural treaties
defamation and product defamation concerning works of art and their provenance
donor restrictions on use or display of donated works
droit moral and the Visual Artists Rights Act
gifts, acquisitions, dispositions and loans
international tax treaties affecting cross-border art transactions
internet sites concerning art and art sales
joint ownership of works of art
loans of artwork to museums and exhibition agreements
looted and confiscated works of art from the Nazi era
lost and stolen works of art
misappropriation of artwork and design
the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
new media agreements
non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
private dealer sales
private treaties

For more information on our Art Law practice, please contact:

Daniel H. Weiner

Co-Chair

Meaghan Gragg

Co-Chair

Among the publicly-disclosed matters we have litigated are these:

Angiolillo v Christie's, Inc., Index No. 650871/15 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. Jul. 9, 2020), in which the Firm successfully represented Christie’s in its defense against claims for its alleged wrongful auction of the 34.65-carat pink gemstone known as the “Princie Diamond."
Arthur Taubman Trust v. Knoedler Gallery, LLC, 13 Civ. 3011 (S.D.N.Y. 2013), in which the Firm successfully represented the purchaser of a forged painting purportedly by Clyfford Still, in the largest art fraud in New York history
Chowaiki v. Steinhardt, Index No. 600250/04 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. Mar. 30, 2005), in which the Firm successfully defended against a claim for tortious interference brought by art dealers alleging that they had been wrongfully excluded from the private sale of a Chagall painting; our client was awarded attorney’s fees because of plaintiffs’ frivolous motion for sanctions
Clarke & Shannon v. Nielsen & Bainbridge LLC, 01 Civ. 2336 (S.D.N.Y. 2001), in which the Firm successfully represented two New York artists in a copyright infringement action arising from defendant’s unauthorized commercial use of our clients’ work of abstract expressionist art
Galerie Gmurzynska v. Ingrid Hutton, 257 F. Supp. 2d 621 (S.D.N.Y. 2003), aff’d, 355 F.3d 206 (2d Cir. 2004), in which the Firm won dismissal of a Lanham Act claim brought by a prominent dealer of Russian avant-garde art against a former curator of New York’s Museum of Modern Art
Grauer v. Deutsch, 01 Civ. 8672 (S.D.N.Y. 2002), in which the Firm successfully represented the co-creator of a series of original photographs in an action for authorship credit and damages under copyright law, the Lanham Act and the Visual Artists Rights Act
Hessel v. Christie’s Inc., 399 F. Supp. 2d 506 (S.D.N.Y. 2005), in which the Firm defeated a defaulting buyer’s effort to block a sale of paintings by Koons and Basquiat
Jones v. Phillips de Pury & Co., Index No. 60210/11 (Civ. Ct. N.Y. Cty. Aug. 9, 2012), in which the Firm obtained summary judgment dismissing claims that Phillips misappropriated the plaintiff’s artwork and designs
Killala Fine Art Ltd. v. Julian Weissman (S.D.N.Y. 2011), in which the Firm successfully obtained reimbursement of the purchase price paid by its client for a forged painting purportedly by Robert Motherwell
Krahmer v. Christie’s, 911 A.2d 399 (Del. Ch. 2006), aff’d, 2007 Del. LEXIS 177 (Del. Apr. 25, 2007), in which the Firm defeated a buyer’s fraud claim challenging the authenticity of a painting attributed to Edward Benton Weston
Prince Adam-Karol Czartoryski-Borbon v. Donald Turcotte, Index No. 107958/97 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. 1997), in which the Firm successfully represented a Polish nobleman in an action to recover a painting stolen from Poland by the Nazis in 1942
Ravenna v. Christie’s, 289 A.D.2d 15 (1st Dep’t 2001), in which the Firm succeeded in dismissing a complaint for negligent misrepresentation concerning the attribution of a painting by Ludovico Carracci, sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 (1997), in which the Firm filed a brief amicus curiae on behalf of a group of 20 artists, including Jenny Holzer and Cindy Sherman, in the United States Supreme Court successfully challenging the constitutionality of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 under the First Amendment
Romania v. Christie’s, 01 Civ. 5616 (S.D.N.Y. 2001), in which the Firm gained dismissal of claims related to a Romanian criminal investigation into the alleged illegal export of a multimillion-dollar sculpture by Brancusi
Sands & Co. v. Christie’s, Index No. 600268/04 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. Feb. 28, 2005), in which the court dismissed an art dealer’s claim against our client for breach of contract for the private treaty sale of a Warhol Mickey Mouse arising from an exchange of emails on the ground that the dealer’s reserved right to inspect the painting showed that the dealer had not unconditionally accepted the alleged offer.

While many of the transactional matters on which we provide advice and counsel are not public, among the publicly-disclosed matters we have worked on are these: