According to The LA Times’ Mike Boehm, Jeffrey Deitch’s employment contract will prohibit him from any self-interested transactions as well as prohibiting him from improperly benefiting his friends or former business associates. Deitch will have to abide by the ethical and professional guidelines of the American Association of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors. Without reading Deitch’s employment contract, all of this is pretty much conjecture and wild guesses. Although a breach of employment contract could be reason to either discipline or dismiss an employee, it does not necessarily follow that the employer must enforce the provision.

Keep in mind also that the other key factor in this relationship is the fact that Deitch is now an employee of a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, which means that he will now have to abide by certain state and federal laws and regulations that would not apply to a for-profit corporation.

Read Boehm’s LA Times article.

Marvel comics sued the children of its longtime writer Jack Kirby, disputing their claim that in 2014 Kirby’s estate will assume ownership of the X-Men and other characters he helped create. Kirby’s four adult children sued Marvel Worldwide in September 2009, claiming that their father, who also co-wrote “Spider-man,” “The Fantastic Four” and “The Incredible Hulk,” and other iconic comic titles, died in 1994 without proper payment or recognition for his work. Kirby’s children claimed the 1976 Copyright Act allowed them to serve Marvel with notices terminating its rights to their father’s work, beginning in 2014.

From Courthouse News Service.

College Art Association Panel:

When it comes to art, “Is it real?” is a question that interests everyone from casual museum-goers to arts professionals. Answering the question can involve historical research, connoisseurship, sophisticated scientific analysis, and more. The question, however, is not only an academic or philosophical one. (Is a Warhol a “Warhol” if the artist himself never touched it?) In an art market where millions—and sometimes tens of millions—can hang in the balance, who is willing to risk being wrong in offering an opinion about authenticity? For those who do offer opinions and even warranties, what are they risking, and what—if anything—should they be risking? What of those who create fakes?  More information on the CAA Panel here.

According to top copyright infringement lawyers, the number of top fashion designers bringing legal action against their rivals for copying their designs has risen four-fold in the UK since the start of the recession. US fashion lawyers also report increasing numbers of people claiming copyright infringement of their designs.

There’s already a court case over a US publication in November of a book by the independent curator Barbara Levine, which documents more than 1,000 “new” works by Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Now, another batch of “undiscovered” works is being touted around the Mexican capital having been unearthed in a trunk in an antiquarian book shop. The seller of the second batch seeks over $300K.

The FBI busted a Hollywood antique dealer yesterday for allegedly selling a phony Pablo Picasso painting for $2 million, and the heirs of a late German-Jewish banker have renounced all rights to a painting by Pablo Picasso, allowing a foundation set up by British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber to keep the piece.

Professor Michael Baur of Fordham Law sent us information on a great panel event at Fordham Law School focusing on Peñalver and Katyal’s new book, Property Outlaws. The event is free and open to the public, though practicing attorneys may also earn CLE.

Click here for more information and registration.

Date(s): 02.04.10 | Thur
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Fordham Law School, James B.M. McNally Amphitheatre
Sponsor: Natural Law Colloquium

“Property Outlaws: On Ownership, Law, Morality, and Disobedience”

Professors Katyal and Peñalver are co-authors of Property Outlaws: How Squatters, Pirates, and Protesters Improve the Law of Ownership (Yale University Press), a new book which explores the relationships between law, morality, and disobedience in the evolution of our social practices involving ownership.

Sonia K. Katyal is Professor of Law at Fordham Law School . She received her A.B. from Brown University , and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. Upon completion of law school, Professor Katyal clerked for the Honorable Carlos Moreno (now a California Supreme Court Justice) in the Central District of California, and then the Honorable Dorothy Nelson in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Her work focuses on intellectual property, civil rights, new media technologies, and the impact of artistic expression on issues in property law. Her scholarly work has appeared in prominent legal publications which include the Texas Law Review , the Yale Law Journal , the University of Pennsylvania Law Review , and the UCLA Law Review .

Eduardo M. Peñalver is Professor of Law at Cornell Law School . He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his law degree from Yale Law School . After law school, he clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and then for Justice John Paul Stevens of the United State Supreme Court. His research focuses on property and land use, as well as on the relationship between law and religion. His articles have appeared in a number of leading law reviews, including the Columbia Law Review , the Virginia Law Review , and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review , and the Yale Law Journal.