Welcome to the Artium Amore Blog
SCAMMERS TARGETING ARTISTS ON THE RISE
Recently there has been a rise of scammers targeting artists. For illustrators, it usually starts with an email or other social media message that looks something like this: Good day, My name is [NAME], I am an academic event organizer and I'm hearing...
HIDDEN SOLAR PANELS POWER POMPEII
The ancient world meets the modern world. Those charged with protecting cultural heritage sites have always had to balance the needs of the site and the needs of a modern world, whether that is through making it accessible to scholars for research,...
WE THOUGHT SHE WAS THE SECRETARY!
The important contributions of female animators is slowly being uncovered by historians challenging traditionally held beliefs about early animation studios and those who worked in them. For decades, the common belief was that these early animators, many of...
VERMONT VARA CASE HEADS TO APPELLATE COURT
In 1993, Vermont Law School commissioned artist Sam Kerson to paint a series of murals highlighting Vermont’s role in the Underground Railroad. Kerson painted the murals in 1994. He painted them directly on the sheetrock of one of the school’s...
IT’S NOT A DOIG: ARTIST RECIEVES $2.53 MILLION AWARD FOR FAKE ATTRIBUTION
Artist Peter Doig was awarded $2.53 million dollars in damages after being sued by a former corrections officer who attempted to force Doig to admit he was the creator of the officer’s painting. The original case dates back to 2016 when Robert Fletcher, the...
24 ROMAN BRONZE STATUES DISCOVERED
Labeled as “a discovery that will rewrite history,” 24 perfectly preserved bronze Roman statues have been discovered in Tuscany. The statues decorated a bath and date to between 2nd century BCE and 1st century CE. Some of them are preserved so well, archaeologists...
LOOTING IN UKRAINE CONTINUES DESPITE RUSSIAN DEFEAT
Since spring, we’ve watched the Russian aggression in Ukraine play out in various ways. Russia must be investigated for crimes against humanity, especially as Ukrainian soldiers continue to discover mass graves in formerly Russian occupied territories and...
THROWING GOOP AT ART WON’T SOLVE CLIMATE CRISIS
In the last several months we’ve seen a major uptick in protestors entering art museums, hurling some sort of messy substance at a major work of art, and then gluing themselves to either the painting, the frame, or the wall next to the work. The most recent...
WARHOL HEADS TO SCOTUS
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Warhol case. This is a case all artists must watch closely as it will determine the future of the fair use doctrine.
US AMENDS NAGPRA
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was enacted in 1990. In the 30+ years it has been effective, it has never been updated. It was designed to require institutions who received funding from the US government (including...
UKRAINE’S CULTURAL HERITAGE IN PERIL
We’re all watching in horror at the escalating humanitarian crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In addition to the intense human suffering, Ukraine’s history and cultural heritage have been targeted by Russian missiles. The capital...
SURE, JUST SMASH IT
A New Zealand auction house recently sold NFTs for two glass plate negatives featuring artist Charles Goldie. In addition to the NFTs, the lot also included a contact print, the original glass plate negative, and a small brass hammer. The auction house encouraged the...
TRADEMARK OFFICE SANCTIONS TRADEMARK SCAMMERS
Both the USPTO and trademark owners have long been plagued by individuals and companies filing false trademark applications or sending owners fake letters telling them they owed fees to complete their application or maintain their mark. Personally, I tell...
FIRST EVER LIFETIME BAN ON PURCHASING ANTIQUITIES
On January 7th, a lawyer for the Attorney General’s Office of the Southern District of New York and a representative from Homeland Security filed a forfeiture action, seeking the seizure of 35 antiquities of Cambodian and Southeast Asian origin from billionaire...
PRE-1923 SOUND RECORDINGS ENTER PUBLIC DOMAIN
On January 1, over 400,00 sound recordings made prior to 1923 entered the public domain and are no longer protected by copyright. This includes many of the greatest recordings of the early jazz age. You can read more about these works as well as listen to some of the...
PAIR INDICTED FOR STEALING MILLIONS IN MUSIC ROYALTIES
As if it weren’t already hard enough for musicians to get paid for their work through legitimate licensing agreements, along comes this dynamic duo. Two men have been indicted by the Department of Justice in Arizona for fraudulently collecting over $20 million in...
SCHOOL CAN CONCEAL ARTWORK WITHOUT VIOLATING VARA
It’s not often that VARA cases come along. This one stems from an attempt by the Vermont School of Law to cover up a mural created by artist Samuel Kerson in 1993. The mural consists of two panels and is titled, The Underground Railroad and...
EXPLAINING THE PANDORA PAPERS
The release and investigation of the Pandora papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) exposed how the world’s wealthiest individuals hid their money from taxation using offshore entities. These papers also included...