Pryor Cashman partner William Charron was recently invited to discuss the fascinating world of art litigation as a guest on The Litigation War Room, a podcast hosted by litigation attorney Maxwell Goss. The co-chair of Pryor Cashman's Art Law practice, Charron is regarded as the nation's preeminent litigator for authenticity, title, and stolen art disputes.
"The fact patterns of these cases are beyond compelling," Charron explains in the interview. Even after working with world-famous musicians like Nelly Furtado, Charron rates the art law cases he has handled - such as the groundbreaking Bakalar v. Vavra case, which concerned the disputed title to a valuable painting looted by the Nazis in World War II - as among the most interesting. "Certainly the Nazi era cases, all of them, could be movies or novels."
Long known around the world for its high-profile work in entertainment law and other areas, Pryor Cashman's Art Law Group has emerged as a leader in art law and litigation thanks in large part to Charron's efforts. In addition to his client work, Charron is a frequent lecturer and author on art law topics and works closely with a number of art law arbitration groups and advisory boards.
Why Art Litigation?
Charron says that a lawyer does not necessarily have to be an art history buff to practice art law - but an interest in the subject doesn't hurt. As a practice area, art litigation isn't vastly different from more familiar areas of litigation, even if the subject matter is sometimes more compelling.
"'Art law' is itself a bit of a misnomer," explains Charron. "It's really sort of a conglomeration of property law, UCC sales law, a lot of procedural law, a lot of evidence, and choice-of-law issues. These are things that the geek in me just really enjoys."
Charron notes that the art market is marked by ambiguities, irregularities, quirky sales practices, and a lack of transparency. For example, a major gallery or consignment house may be unwilling or unable to disclose the owner of a multi-million-dollar piece to a potential buyer. These dynamics create a legal environment in which cases like Bakalar vs. Vavra can arise.
Bakalar vs. Vavra - Litigating Nazi-Looted Art
In the early 2000s, film producer and Pryor Cashman client David Bakalar attempted to sell an Egon Schiele drawing he had bought in the 1960s called "Seated Woman With Bent Left Leg." The sale was disrupted by the family of Franz Grunbaum, which claimed the drawing had been stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Charron represented Bakalar in what would become one of the first major Nazi-looted art cases.
The case went on for seven years and received wide press coverage. At the end of this saga, the court ruled that the Schiele piece should stay with its then-current owner and good-faith buyer, David Bakalar. That ruling ultimately hinged on the doctrine of "laches" advanced by Charron's legal team. Laches is a somewhat arcane but important doctrine - especially for art law - that can bar title actions then there has been a long delay in filing a claim. The verdict has significant implications for other art title disputes, especially in Holocaust restitution cases.
Stolen and Forged Art: What's the Solution?
Fake and forged art is a major issue in the art market , and one that Charron is committed to helping address. He was instrumental in the formation of the Court of Arbitration for Art (CAfA), a specialty tribunal for visual art disputes based in the Hague. He is also involved with the group Authentication in Art, which studies the problem of fake and forged art in the marketplace.
According to Charron, one of the problems is "us — the lawyers and the court system." U.S. litigation issues can be very expensive and cause cases to drag on for years. Additionally, courts largely defer to the markets to determine authenticity, which can be unsatisfying to clients.
"The CAfA was born of this idea that maybe we could do a specialized tribunal," explains Charron. "I thought if we had a specialized group of arbitrators and mediators, we could help flatten that learning curve and bring more reliability and certainty and efficiency and cost-savings to the process."
As the art market remains shrouded in mystery and largely deregulated, the work of art litigators like Charron will continue to be essential. The Pryor Cashman Art Law practice is dedicated to tackling big issues like restitution, title claims, cultural heritage claims, fake and forged art, as well as addressing the structural inefficiencies that exacerbate them.
Listen to the full podcast episode to learn more about the Bakalar vs. Vavra case and how Charron's work at Pryor Cashman is impacting the art world.
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