BREAKING

UK Adopts Anti−Money Laundering Regulations for Art Dealers and Auction Houses

This January, the UK ratified new legislation that introduced, largely without modification, the EU’s Fifth Money Laundering Directive, which imposes new compliance obligations on art market participants.

Art dealers and auction houses, among others, will now have to register with the tax authorities and make sure that client due diligence is conducted on all new customers before entering into a transaction worth more than 10,000 euros, or about $11,100. This includes the requirement to establish the identity of the “ultimate beneficial owner” before entering into a transaction. As the art market traditionally prefers confidentiality and anonymity, many of the new regulations go against the grain. While the precise contours of the new regulations will likely be subject to much debate in the coming months, critics point out that the regulations place a disproportionate burden on the middle-market and small business. Notably, as we previously reported, the United States is considering similar legislation to extend the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act to art market participants, and the proposed legislation appears to have bipartisan support.

• The New York Times: Britain Moves to Regulate Its Art Trade. Bring Your ID.

• The Art Newspaper: Tough UK anti−money laundering law comes into force tomorrow — here’s what you need to know

• Artnet: UK Dealers Are Scrambling to Make Sense of “Burdensome” New Anti−Money Laundering Regulations Quietly Passed Over the Holidays

• UK Money Laundering Regulations: The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019

• EU’s Fifth Money Laundering Directive: Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, and amending Directives 2009/138/EC and 2013/36/EU

The rest of our art law news summaries are separated by geographic region for your browsing convenience.

UNITED STATES

SCOTUS Pauses the Guelph Treasure Appeal to Let U.S. Government Have Its Say

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz or SPK), which operates Berlin’s state museums, is seeking review by the United States Supreme Court of the issue of U.S. courts’ jurisdiction to hear the case of the 1935 sale of the famed Guelph Treasure by Jewish art dealers to the Prussian government. The Guelph Treasure is a collection of 82 pieces of medieval ecclesiastical art originally housed at Brunswick Cathedral in Braunschweig, Germany. The objects are presently dispersed between private and museum collections, including the Bode Museum in Berlin. In 2015, the heirs of the Jewish dealers filed a lawsuit against the German government in the United States alleging that the 1935 sale occurred under duress. SPK unsuccessfully moved to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds and their appeal was rejected in June 2019, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed the petition to rehear en banc. The U.S. Supreme Court has delayed its decision for the next several months to allow the U.S. government to add its views.

• The Art Newspaper: Supreme Court delays Guelph Treasure appeal so US government can add its views to case

• Artnet News: In a Bid to Keep the $275 Million Guelph Treasure, Germany Appeals Nazi Restitution Case to the US Supreme Court

• The Art Newspaper: Berlin museums appeal to US Supreme Court in dispute over €200m Guelph Treasure

J. Paul Getty Museum Succeeds in Securing an Export License for a Major 18th Century Painting

Two Boys with a Bladder, a painting by the 18th century artist Joseph Wright of Derby, who is considered one of the most important artists of the British Enlightenment, will go to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles despite the UK government’s efforts to keep the work in the country. The Getty Museum purchased the work at the TEFAF fair in Maastricht, Netherlands, from a London-based gallery in March 2019. However, for the painting to leave the UK, an export license was required. This past October, the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport placed an export bar on this painting in the hopes of finding a UK buyer. No such buyer was found, however, allowing the artwork to now leave the UK.

• The Art Newspaper: UK fails to save painting of ‘paramount importance’ as Getty export license is granted

• Art & Objet: Getty wins right to export “Two Boys with a Bladder”

• BBC: Bid to keep Joseph Wright masterpiece in Britain fails

Artworks Created in 1924 Are Now in the Public Domain

A number of celebrated paintings, sculptures, films and works of literature have entered the public domain as of January 1, 2020, including George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Flower Abstraction from the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Edward Hopper’s New York Pavements at Virginia’s Chrysler Museum. These works may now be freely reproduced, and derivative works may be created.

• Artnet: Long Hidden From the Public Eye, These Artistic Treasures from 1924 Are Now Entering the Public Domain

EUROPE

Paris Musées Releases Thousands of High-Resolution Reproductions to the Public Domain

Paris Musées, a public entity that oversees the 14 municipal museums of Paris, released more than 100,000 high-resolution images to the public domain under CCØ license (Creative Commons Zero). Art lovers may now download high-quality images of the works by painters such as Courbet, Delacroix, Rembrandt and van Dyck or photographers such as Atget, Blanchard, Marville and Carjat. The images of the artworks subjected to copyright remain in low definition to illustrate the files on the collection’s website. Following the lead of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, Paris Musées is the first French institution to offer a considerable number of reproductions in high definition.

• Paris Musées: Open content: plus de 100 000 œuvres des collections des musées de la Ville de Paris en libre accès

• Creative Commons: Paris Musées Releases 100,000+ Works into the Public Domain

Two Men Confess to Stealing the Recently Recovered Klimt Painting

A Gustav Klimt painting was recently uncovered by gardeners inside an external wall of the Ricci Oddi Modern Art Gallery in Piacenza, Italy. This is the very same gallery from which the painting was stolen 24 years ago. Two men wrote a letter to a local newspaper in which they confessed to stealing the painting, claiming that they had returned it as a “gift to the city.” Their confession was timed to come after the expiration of the statute of limitations on the crime.

• Artnet: In a Twist, Two Serial Art Thieves Confess to Having Hidden Klimt’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ Inside a Wall So That It Might Be Recovered

• The Guardian: Klimt art thieves confess to stealing then returning painting

Five Old Master Works Stolen from Friedenstein Palace Are Returned

The December 1979 theft of five Old Master paintings from the Friedenstein Palace in Gotha, Thuringia, Germany, was Germany’s equivalent to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist, except with a happy ending when the works were returned with no ransom paid. The paintings, which suffered through a 40-year adventure, include a portrait by Frans Hals, a painting by Hans Holbein the Elder and a landscape from the workshop of Jan Brueghel the Elder, all dating from the mid-16th century to the 17th century. The details of the heist, however, remain a mystery.

• The Art Newspaper: Five Old Masters return to German castle 40 years after theft

• Artnet: Five Old Master Paintings Stolen 40 Years Ago in a Notorious Art Heist Have Been Recovered Thanks to a German Mayor’s Ingenious Plan

Picasso Painting’s Attacker Will Fight Criminal Charges

Shakeel Ryan Massey, a 20-year-old northwest London resident, was apprehended for allegedly attacking and ripping Picasso’s celebrated portrait titled Bust of a Woman, which depicts Picasso’s famed muse, Dora Maar. The incident occurred at Tate Modern in London. Massey announced his intent to fight criminal charges levied against him.

• Artnet: The London Man Who Allegedly Attacked a $26 Million Picasso at Tate Modern Says He Will Fight the Charge

• Hyperallergic: Man Vandalized a Picasso Portrait of Dora Maar at Tate Modern

ASIA

Former Bridgestone Museum of Art Reopened under a New Name

After a three-year renovation, the Bridgestone Museum of Art in the Kyōbashi district of Tokyo, which houses one of Asia’s finest collections of French Impressionism, reopened under a new name, the Artizon Museum, on January 18, 2020.

• The Art Newspaper: Tokyo’s treasure house of Impressionist painting reopens as Artizon Museum

Archeologists Uncover 2,500-Year-Old Tomb of Warrior Women in Russia

An expedition led by the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Scientists discovered a 2,500-year-old tomb in Southern Russia containing the remains of four women warriors believed to have been members of the Scythian tribes. The Scythian female warriors are believed to be the inspiration for the myths of the Amazons.

• The Art Newspaper: Archaeologists uncover evidence that legendary Amazons were based on real women warriors