It’s back, like a double-edged dagger — an éperon — Nietzsche style.  Back by popular demand, and now going on its third year, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts‘ legendary, ground-breaking, and no-holds-barred educational series for visual artists.

“Informative, thought-provoking, enlightening, sensical. These things should be taught in art school, but I’m glad I learned them here!” notes one artist. “Pure deliciousness. Challenging, spicy, enlightening,” notes another. Read (and see) what other past participants have said here.

Although fees are now attached, artists can register for individual classes or the entire series. Course starts March 20, 2012

Law School for Visual Artists

Topics that will be covered during the 5-week course:

Tuesday March 20, 2012
Introduction:
• Legal Hypothetical: Analyzing legal issues in your art projects

Tuesday March 27, 2012
• Basic business models (non-profit and for-profit corporations, LLC’s)
• Fiscal Sponsorships
• Employment issues
A. Studio and gallery assistants
B. Working as a preparator for art galleries

Tuesday April 3, 2012
• Free Speech
• Right of Privacy

Tuesday April 10, 2012
Contracts
• Consignment Agreements
• Licensing Agreements
• Commissioning Agreements

Tuesday April 17, 2012
• Intellectual Property (copyright and trademarks)

Click here to register for this course (or just one or two classes).

A source close to the contract negotiations notified Hyperallergic on Wednesday that the union and the museum have had five meetings and are unable yet to settle on a new contract.

Via Hyperallergic. [Note: the article refers at least twice to "contacts," but we believe they mean to say contracts.]

From The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat:

The Authentication Committee of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat announced that it will dissolve in September 2012 and no longer consider applications thereafter. The Authentication Committee has been in existence for eighteen years and has reviewed over 2,000 works of art. It believes that it has fulfilled its goal of providing the public with an opportunity to obtain an opinion as to the authenticity of works purportedly created by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The Committee wishes to take this opportunity to thank all the people who worked on its behalf.

Is this copyright taken to the extreme? Remember kids, ideas are not protected by copyright.

Via Boing Boing.

According to the LA Times,

This week, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland, announced on its website that it has acquired [Polish artist Zbigniew] Libera ‘s concentration camp creations. The museum said it purchased the artwork on Dec. 30 from a Norwegian art collector for 55,000 euros, or approximately $71,800. The museum described the pieces as “one of the most important works of contemporary Polish art.”

There are claims of censorship in Istanbul as eight artists and an artist collective have made a joint decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Modern museum’s ongoing Reality and Dream exhibition, which chronicles the works of female artists from Turkey since the 1900s.

Via Hyperallergic.

You can please some people some of the time…

While most applaud the generosity of his gift — $20?million in cash to be delivered over time and $15 million worth of the Latin American art that lines every wall in his house — there are also some who slam him for wanting to claim all the credit for a museum being bankrolled largely by taxpayers[.]

Via The Sun Sentinel.

So claims Forbes Magazine, and what happens to that world when another billionaire enters the fray.

The law strikes again!

According to the NY Post, New York City’s “Department of Health warned the New Museum yesterday that it can no longer have more than one visitor at a time splashing around — often nude — in a giant bathtub that’s part of an adult-playground exhibition.” “The Health Department contacted administrators at the New Museum and advised them of the requirements in the Health Code and the conditions that would require approval and a permit,” said the DOH’s John Kelly.

And that’s not all. City “officials are also investigating whether other parts of the exhibit — a giant slide and a carousel — meet city regulations, a spokeswoman for the Department of Consumer Affairs said.

Citing the high cost of legal fees, the Andy Warhol Authentication Fund is shutting down.

But it was the legal fees from lawsuits over works rejected by the board that ultimately made it untenable, according to [Joel] Wachs, [Warhol Foundation president]. “I don’t want to spend $7 million a year on lawyers,” he said[.]

Of course, there are some that are quite happy with the shutdown.

Seth Redniss, the New York lawyer who represented both Simon and Shaer in court, told ARTINFO, “There’s no need for a comment. The shutdown speaks for itself.”

Via Artinfo.