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Art Of Lawyering Takes On Another Meaning

Van Gogh masterpieces, museum collections focus of firm’s new practice group

By DOUGLAS S. MALAN

Art theft is one of the most profitable crimes in the world. Governments are making more ownership claims against museums over famous works of art. And collectors in a down economy are selling their pieces or using collections as collateral for loans.

It’s a good time to be a lawyer who focuses on art law. At least Wiggin and Dana thinks so. Last week, the New Haven-based firm announced the formation of its art and museum law practice group.

The nine lawyers in the group, seven of them partners, practice in a variety of disciplines, including litigation, trusts and estates and insurance, among others. They are located in New Haven, Stamford, New York and Philadelphia and their art law clients include universities, museums, private collectors and insurers.

“A number of us have worked on art law matters in the past, and we realized we have a tremendous amount of experience that we can offer,” said Jonathan M. Freiman, a litigator who chairs the firm’s new practice group.

Wiggin and Dana has been handling legal issues involving art for some time. That includes representing the estate of famed American photographer Walkers Evans and arranging for the sale of his archive to New York’s Metropolitan Museum after Evans’ death in the 1970s.

The firm also has represented the estate of American painter Robert Motherwell and the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation. Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator.

But formalizing the practice group allows the firm to market its services to what could become a national and international base of clients.

Art law groups normally are created by banding together lawyers in various practice areas who have considerable experience dealing with art disputes, said Paul M. Roy, a New Haven-based member of Withers Bergman’s 28-lawyer cultural assets and art law group.

“My art law practice, which started 26 years ago, has developed as part of the firm’s estate planning practice,” said Roy, who handles individuals’ tax issues involved with donations of art to institutions. “Usually, art law practices are an outgrowth of something else. It can be a natural add-on when you’re representing wealthy individuals.”

Ownership Disputes

It’s mainly a big-city discipline, Roy noted, making Wiggin and Dana’s Connecticut-based practice somewhat rare. Withers Bergman’s head of art law is based in London and several other lawyers practice out of New York and Hong Kong.

Wiggin and Dana already has established itself as a player in the art law field by representing Yale University in two ongoing, high-profile disputes.

The university is defending a claim by a French citizen that he is the rightful owner of the Vincent van Gogh painting “The Night Café” that was bequeathed to Yale by an alumnus in the early 1960s. The French citizen claims that his great-grandfather, a Russian industrialist, purchased the painting in the early 20th century only to have the Russian government take possession and later sell it.

The other lawsuit involves the Peruvian government’s claims that Incan artifacts housed in a Yale museum should be returned to the South American country. A Yale explorer brought back the artifacts from the ancient city of Machu Picchu during a 1911 expedition.

“Those types of disputes are happening more frequently than they used to,” Freiman said.

Italy is an example of one government that has become more aggressive in litigating over rightful ownership of art and artifacts taken from the country.

That’s likely because Italy is one of the hot spots when it comes to art theft, according to the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, a New Hampshire-based group that tracks international art crimes. Italy and Russia lead the way, as organized crime rings worldwide pull in an estimated $6 billion to $8 billion annually from the sale of stolen artwork. Only drugs and arms trafficking are more profitable.

But it’s not just an overseas concern.

In March, New Haven police uncovered 39 pieces of art that had been stolen from Yale’s Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life and the public library and traded for drugs.

“A certain segment of criminals have realized that art is worth a lot of money, and people are taking steps to protect themselves,” Freiman said.

That’s where the insurance work comes into play within the art law practice group. Even with non-profit institutions struggling for operating revenue, they’re willing to hire a lawyer to assist in a dispute over ownership or to properly protect against theft and damage, Freiman noted.

The economic downturn also has changed the way collectors and institutions treat their works of art. Art is used as collateral for securing loans, and corporations are selling works of art to bring in cash.

“The downturn has opened up new ways of thinking what needs to be done with art,” Freiman said. “When that happens, there’s a need for lawyers.” •