Guidelines Established to Prevent Stolen Art Acquisitions

Interestingly enough, this post follows the one about stolen artwork.

Museums are establishing guidelines that are designed to suppress the market for looted archaeological treasures. They are encouraged to establish their own clear collections policies and require documentation that new artifacts have not been illegally exported from their countries of origin. 

Many museums are already in compliance with the guidelines, said American Association of Museum President Ford Bell. "The harder thing will be looking at existing collections, which is a big job", he said. The ownership histories of antiquities and Nazi-era artwork are perhaps the hardest to determine. 

The new guidelines do not prevent anonymous donors, but they will be required to provide all available information on the artwork or artifact. 

Sounds like a good start to me!

Orphan Works Bill

Orphan Works Bill

It started simple enough. This was a bill introduced to help libraries and museums preserve disintegrating works by duplication when the copyright owner can not be found. After years of bouncing around congress, it has become a monster. Currently, copyright is granted the moment a work is created. This new Orphan Works legislation proposes a change in U.S. copyright that would (indirectly) require artists, illustrators, photographers, and any creative individual to actively maintain and defend their copyright by registering each and every work with privatised registrars. Failure to do so would leave everything you've ever created as an artist up for grabs by anyone who wanted to copy, reproduce, create derivative works for, or flat out steal your work. This only hurts the little guy and the large corporations love it. Get informed! A great explanation can be found right here.