"The Labors of November"

What's New in Art Law

• [Art Crime] Thieves Steal ‘Priceless’ Crown Jewels from the Louvre

  Thirty minutes after the museum opened on Saturday, October 18, thieves broke into the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon using a truck-mounted ladder. In seven minutes, they broke two display cases and removed eight items of jewelry, including a tiara belonging to Empress Eugénie, a decorative bow, a brooch, a sapphire necklace, a tiara and earring set, and a pair of emerald and diamond earrings. The stolen goods are valued at more than $100 million. The thieves exited using the ladder and escaped on electric scooters with two waiting accomplices. Occurring in broad daylight, the brazen heist has exposed flaws in the museum’s security system. French police have made arrests in connection with the theft but have not released details about the suspects. Read more here and here . [RB]

• [Art Crime] More than 1,000 Items Stolen from Storage Facility at Oakland Museum of California

  The Oakland Police Department announced that at approximately 3:30 a.m. on October 15, thieves broke into an off-site storage facility and stole more than 1,000 objects. The stolen artifacts include various memorabilia, a pair of carved walrus tusks dating to the 19th century, jewelry, daguerreotypes, laptops, and Native American antiques. At this time, it remains unclear how many people were involved in the theft. The FBI Art Crime Team is assisting in the ongoing investigation. Read more here. [RB] 

• [Class Action Copyright Lawsuit, Artificial Intelligence] Anthropic to Pay $1.5 Billion in Class Action Lawsuit

  In August 2024, a group of authors sued Anthropic in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that the artificial intelligence research company trained its AI models on pirated works. In June 2025, the court found that Anthropic’s use of pirated works from online databases was not protected under fair use. Following mediation, Anthropic agreed to pay $1.5 billion in damages to the affected authors and publishers. However, the authors were not directly notified that their works had been used illegally. Instead, they must submit their contact information to receive a formal notice of the class action. Read more here. [LS]

• [Missing Art] Missing Picasso Found

  Earlier in October, a 1919 Picasso painting vanished while en route from Madrid to Granada for an exhibition organized by the CajaGranada Foundation. The painting, Still Life with Guitar, is valued at $700,000. On October 24, Spanish police announced that they had recovered the missing artwork and stated that the painting may not have been loaded onto the truck before it left Madrid. Read more here and here. [LS]

• [Generative AI] OpenAI Announces Policy Change for Use of Copyrighted Characters

  After the launch of OpenAI’s Sora 2 video generator led to a surge of clips featuring copyrighted characters such as Mario and Pikachu, CEO Sam Altman announced that the company would introduce new controls allowing intellectual property rights holders to determine how their characters are used. Previously, OpenAI had reached out to entertainment companies, offering them the chance to retroactively opt out of having their characters appear in AI-generated content—a policy that contrasts with its opt-in requirement for public figures. Altman’s announcement came amid growing concern from companies like Nintendo, which vowed to protect its intellectual property, and warnings that OpenAI could face serious copyright disputes over the use of protected characters, similar to other AI firms. Read more here. [LS]

• [Legal Ownership] Molly McQueen Seeks Possession of Pollock

  Molly McQueen, the granddaughter of Hollywood actor Steve McQueen, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against Brent Borchert, alleging that she is the legal owner of a Jackson Pollock painting. McQueen claims that the Pollock painting was given to Borchert’s parents in an “anticipated exchange” for a motorcycle and property in Latigo Canyon. According to McQueen, one of the Borcherts crashed the motorcycle “and the property never changed title.” After the exchange fell through, Steve McQueen demanded the return of the painting. Read more here. [LS]

• [Art Authentication] Disputed Self-Portrait Attributed to Gauguin

  The Kunstmuseum Basel has affirmed the authenticity of a Paul Gauguin self-portrait titled Portrait de l’artiste par lui-même, believed to be one of the final works completed by the artist before his death. Since 1924, however, there has been speculation that the portrait could be a forgery. In response to recent claims by French researcher Fabrice Fourmanoir, the Kunstmuseum sent the painting to the Bern Academy of the Arts for analysis, including infrared reflectography and radiography scans. The museum now reports that the analysis confirms the painting’s attribution to Gauguin, though it was altered by later overpainting. Read more here. [RB]

• [Repatriation] MFA Boston Repatriates Works by Enslaved Artist to Descendants

  The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Boston has signed agreements to return two works by David Blake, who was enslaved at the time of their creation in 1857, to the artist’s descendants. Under the agreement, one of the two works will remain in the museum’s collection on loan for a minimum of two years, while the other has been repurchased by the museum from the new owners. This marks the first time the MFA has settled a restitution claim for a work created by an enslaved person, setting an important precedent for ethical stewardship by other institutions. Read more here. [RB]

   

• [Art Crime] Coins Stolen from Diderot Museum Following Louvre Heist

  Just one day after the theft of the French crown jewels at the Louvre, the Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot in Langres, France, also fell victim to robbers. The small museum, dedicated to Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot, reported a break-in on October 20 during its regular Monday closure. Several gold and silver coins—part of a trove of nearly 2,000 discovered hidden in the museum’s woodwork during a 2011 renovation—were removed from their cases, with police finding evidence of forced entry and broken display glass. This incident follows a string of recent art-related robberies in France, including the Louvre theft and the theft of gold nuggets from the Museum of Natural History in Paris. Read more here. [SG]

• [Art Market] Record-Breaking Paris Auctions Renew Confidence in Global Art Sales

  Paris Art Week brought encouraging results for both Sotheby’s and Christie’s, suggesting a potential rebound in the art market. Sotheby’s doubleheader—Surrealism and Its Legacy and Modernités—achieved a record €89.7 million ($104 million), the highest total ever for surrealist and modern art auctions in France, representing a 50% increase over last year. Similarly, Christie’s hosted four sales totaling $107.4 million, up 16% from 2024. Executives at both auction houses hailed the sales as evidence of resilience and renewed enthusiasm among collectors. Read more here. [SG]

• [Censorship] French Museum Cameron Rowland’s Flag Installation Over Legal Concerns

  The Palais de Tokyo in Paris removed Replacement (2025), a work by American artist Cameron Rowland, after officials warned that the piece—which replaced the French flag with the flag of Martinique—might violate French laws governing public symbols. The installation, part of the exhibition ECHO DELAY REVERB: American Art, Francophone Thought, was deemed potentially illegal under France’s “principle of neutrality,” which prohibits political or ideological displays on public buildings. The museum allowed the flag to hang only on the exhibition’s opening day before relocating its accompanying text indoors, explaining that legal opinions found the display incompatible with public service neutrality. Read more here. [SG]

• [Nazi Looted Art] Met Sued over Allegedly Nazi-looted Van Gogh

  The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is being sued by heirs of the Stern family—for the second time—over an allegedly Nazi-looted Van Gogh painting, Olive Picking. The Stern heirs claim that prior to the Met’s acquisition, the painting belonged to Hedwig and Frederick Stern, who were unable to take it with them when they fled Nazi Germany. Although the Met sold the painting to a Greek collector in 1972, after holding it for 16 years, the heirs allege that the museum should have undertaken greater efforts to verify its provenance. After a California court declined to hear the case in 2022, the Stern heirs are now pursuing it in New York. Read more here. [VD]

• [Protest Art] Melting Democracy: Artists Protest Actions Taken by the Trump Administration

  Artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese installed a 300-pound, 5-foot-tall, 17-foot-wide ice sculpture spelling the word “Democracy” on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Activist Ben Cohen and his Up In Arms campaign funded the creation of the sculpture. The artists and Cohen described the piece as a commentary on actions taken by the Trump administration, explaining that the rapidly melting sculpture symbolized “rapidly eroding rights and an existential threat to the freedom on which America was founded.” Read more here. [VD]