Law A Hard-Hitting New Senate Report Details How Art Dealers and Auction Houses Have Undermined US Sanctions Against Russia Arkady and Boris Rotenberg spent $18.4 million in art after being put under sanctions by president Obama. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 29, 2020
Law Whistleblowers at the Detroit Institute of Arts Expand Their Ethics Complaint Beyond the Museum’s Director to Include the Board Chair, Too The expanded complaint was filed with the institute's board and the Association of Art Museum Directors. By Rachel Corbett, Jul 24, 2020
Law After Abruptly Shutting Down Amid a Staff Unionizing Effort, LA’s Marciano Foundation Must Now Pay a Settlement to Laid-Off Workers The LA foundation is paying laid-off workers 10 weeks of severance as part of the settlement. By Sarah Cascone, Jul 23, 2020
Law In a Historic Move, France Has Taken a Major Step Towards Fully Restituting 27 Looted African Objects to Senegal and Benin New legislation in France could see 26 looted objects returned to Benin and a sword restituted to Senegal. By Kate Brown, Jul 16, 2020
Law Art Dealer Inigo Philbrick Will Be Kept In US Custody After His Fiancée’s Family’s Bahamas Real Estate Was Rejected as Bail Collateral Philbrick's mother also offered to put up her house in Connecticut as bond. By Eileen Kinsella, Jul 15, 2020
Law Disgraced Art Dealer Inigo Philbrick Has Been Formally Charged by US Authorities With Wire Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft Philbrick is reportedly in the same Oklahoma jail where "Tiger King" Joe Exotic was incarcerated until recently. By Eileen Kinsella, Jul 14, 2020
Law In a Big Win for Yves Bouvier, a Monaco Judge Throws Out Dmitry Rybolovlev’s Charges Against the Swiss Art Dealer The decision effectively ends the case against Bouvier in Monaco. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 9, 2020
Law An Art-Dealing Dynasty Heir Sues Phillips Auction House for Reneging on a Deal After the Artist’s Market Took a Tumble Art dealer Joe Nahmad is suing Phillips after the auction house pulled out of a $5 million guarantee deal for a work by Rudolf Stingel. By Eileen Kinsella, Jul 8, 2020
Law Jeff Koons, Gagosian Gallery, and Many Other Blue-Chip Art Operations Received Millions of Dollars in Government Stimulus Money The US government has released the names of businesses that received more than $150,000 in federal stimulus loans. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 7, 2020
Law Cuban Authorities Detained Artist Tania Bruguera While She Was on Her Way to a Protest Against Police Violence in Havana Bruguera was one of at least 40 dissident artists and activists taken into custody by Cuban authorities prior to the event. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 1, 2020
Law The New York Academy of Art Commissioned a Report That Purports to Discredit Claims That the School Enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s Abuses Despite Maria Farmer's allegations, the academy's board of trustees has asked its embattled chair, Eileen Guggenheim, to remain in her position. By Rachel Corbett, Jun 30, 2020
Law Authorities Arrest 6 Suspects in France Over the Theft of Banksy’s Mural Commemorating the Bataclan Attack The mural was recovered earlier this month, one year after it was swiped from its home outside the Paris theater. By Kate Brown, Jun 29, 2020
Law A New App Aims to Help UK Art Dealers Struggling to Comply With the Country’s Confusing New Anti-Money-Laundering Rules ArtAML guides dealers through due diligence checks on clients. By Naomi Rea, Jun 29, 2020
Law Facebook, a Longtime Hub for the Illicit Antiquities Trade, Bans the Sale of Historic Artifacts on the Platform Ancient coins, manuscripts, mosaics, scrolls, and tombstones are all included in the ban. By Taylor Dafoe, Jun 24, 2020
Law The ACLU Is Suing Miami Beach for Censoring a Memorial Portrait of a Black Man Who Was Killed by Police The work briefly appeared as part of an exhibition in Miami Beach last May. By Sarah Cascone, Jun 23, 2020
