Tag Archives: trial

Another Australian auction dispute

Posted on: January 13, 2015 by Alexander Herman

On the heels of McBride v Christie’s Australia, came another auction dispute from Australia, this one involving the children of renowned painter John Olsen and Sotheby’s Australia. Sotheby’s had listed for auction an Olsen work entitled Mother, which had been painted in 1964 for the painter’s second wife, marking the birth of their daughter. The children, now executors of their mother’s […]

Big Eyes: An IP perspective?

Posted on: January 6, 2015 by Alexander Herman

The new Tim Burton film, Big Eyes, was released over the holidays. It tells the story of American painter Margaret Keane (née Hawkins), whose works for the most part depicted young waif-like girls with enlarged, often tearful, eyes. Throughout the 1960s, as the paintings became increasingly popular, Margaret’s husband, Walter, would pass them off as his own. The paintings […]

Settlement in Beaverbrook Art Dispute

Posted on: April 14, 2014 by Alexander Herman

It was recently revealed that a final settlement had been reached in the decade-long Beaverbrook art saga. The dispute involved over 200 works that had once belonged to Max Aitken, aka Lord Beaverbrook, the Canadian-born London-based newspaper magnate. Before he died in 1964, Beaverbrook had founded an art gallery in his home province of New […]