Let’s Make Law! Proposed Amendment to the NY Arts and Cultural Affairs Law to Protect Consignments

June 6, 2011

On April 15, 2011, Assembly Member Bing and other members of the New York Senate introduced an Act to amend the NY Arts and Cultural Affairs Law in an effort to protect the artists and their heirs when consigning art to galleries. The amendment was proposed by the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association in the aftermath of the Salander-O’Reilly bankruptcy and other consigning disasters. The proposed amendments are intended “to give teeth to the existing trust property and trust fund provisions of Articles 11 and 12 of Law by ensuring that children and heirs of an artist in certain cases qualify for the protections governing consignments and making it explicit that works of art consigned by artists, craftspeople, their heirs and personal representatives to art merchants are not, and shall not become, the property of the art merchant, or the art merchant’s bankruptcy estate.”

See a full copy of the amendment here (A. 7189).