Thursday, March 28, 2024
 

Was Mexican Artist Legally Insane?


An interesting case bridging art and law, specifically asking what defines a person (in this case a Mexican artist) as legally incompetent to make a gift.

From the LA Times:

A bicoastal legal battle has erupted over who owns 17 drawings by Martín Ramírez, whose artworks, created while he lived in California state mental institutions until his death in 1963, now fetch six-figure sums.

The main question is whether Maureen Hammond, a widowed, retired schoolteacher living in Needles, Calif., was the legitimate recipient of a gift of Ramírez’s drawings from a psychologist who befriended the artist and was the first person to arrange for their display during the 1950s?

Hammond’s attorneys, Rick Richmond and Brent Caslin, said that California court rulings suggest that terms such as “insanity” and “incompetence” in committal forms were general terms during the early 1900s, not clinical ones. The involuntary commitment Ramírez underwent “has no bearing on his ability or mental capacity to make gifts,” Richmond said.

Eric Lieberman, an attorney for the Ramírez estate, said Tuesday that it was clear that the artist was ruled insane when he was committed to a state hospital, “and his diagnosis never changed.”

 

Comments

No comments so far.
  • Leave a Reply
     
    Your gravatar
    Your Name
     
     
     

     
     
 
Legal

Clancco, Clancco: The Source for Art & Law, Clancco.com, and Art & Law are trademarks owned by Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento. The views expressed on this site are those of Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento and of the artists and writers who submit to Clancco.com. They are not the views of any other organization, legal or otherwise. All content contained on or made available through Clancco.com is not intended to and does not constitute legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed, nor is anything submitted to Clancco.com treated as confidential.

Website Terms of Use, Privacy, and Applicable Law.
 

Switch to our mobile site