Archive note, October 2026: This firm announcement said Law Offices of Aaron Resnick had formed a practice group for art and cultural property law. The announcement gives no date; it describes the group's work as of that time and ends with a reading list on artists' rights and copyright.

Today, attorney Aaron Resnick of Law Offices of Aaron Resnick advises artists, galleries and collectors on copyright, sales and consignment contracts, and authenticity and ownership disputes; that work is on the firm's art law page.

Law Offices of Aaron Resnick, led by Miami business attorney Aaron Resnick, announced a practice group focused on art and cultural property law.

The Law Offices of Aaron Resnick is extremely proud to have developed a practice group focusing on art and cultural property law. The firm handles all types of art litigation and alternate forms of dispute resolution, and also actively represent and counsel clients in corporate and commercial art law matters. Recently the firm was engaged in an action with Sotheby's' Auction house, which resulted in a favorable resolution for its client. According to Attorney Aaron Resnick, Art law is actually a combination of legal concepts geared towards coping with the issues related to art creation, ownership and transactions, and is an amalgam of contracts law, trusts and estates law, litigation and statutory law at different levels. Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution authorizes Congress to secure exclusive rights to authors and inventors for limited times.

In practice art lawyers are often litigators because many of the legal issues that arise relating to artwork are actually, at their core, adversarial legal disputes. Lawyers at the Law Offices of Aaron Resnick represent buyers and sellers of artwork in authenticity disputes, for example, or in litigation relating to provenance. Other issues that frequently arise are those specifically relating to the artists themselves, art law litigators often represent artists whose work has been stolen (either physically or as a matter of copyright infringement) or who seek to prevent their prior work from being destroyed.

In other instances we may provide more pre-emptive advice. The Firm is often retained to advise art sellers how they may conduct sales and how to structure their art business transactions. For example, we may draft an art gallery's consignment agreement or the terms of sale which appear on each sale invoice.

Other non-litigation art lawyers at the Firm include trust and estates lawyers who advise visual artists and their estates on taxation and estate planning matters such as setting up foundations and donating works of art to museums.

The clients of the Law Offices of Aaron Resnick range from art buyers or collectors to art dealers, galleries, auction houses, museums and artists themselves. According to Resnick, though many clients seek the advice of their general legal practitioner at first, many disputes are better handled by those who deal with specific fine art related matters. 
To keep up with all the latest in Art Law news, Resnick suggests people go to http://theartlawblog.blogspot.com/. In addition, these sites are recommended:

Artists' Rights
The law gives artists certain rights in their creations. William Fisher, “Theories of Intellectual Property,” in Stephen Munzer, ed., New Essays in the Legal and Political Theory of Property (Cambridge University Press, 2001) is recommended for those who want to explore a sophisticated introduction to why the law recognizes property interests in intellectual products. These interests can be economic or non-economic, personality rights. 
Copyright
Basics
• Copyright Crash Course: University of Texas. Includes very useful “Rules of Thumb” developed at UT. 
• Copyright: an overview from the Cornell Legal Information Institute 
• Note particularly the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), §§106, 106A, 107, and 113 of the Copyright Act 
• Berne Convention [Roam around in this site; don't feel obliged to read the whole thing] 
• U.S. Copyright Office, a useful site for basic information. 
• A very extensive online collection of intellectual property laws is maintained by WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. 
Works-for-hire
• Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730 (1989) 
• The Government Wants Its WPA Art Back. See also Jeanette Hendler, The W.P.A. Artists Project. 
Originality
• Bridgeman Art Library 
• Barry G. Szczesny, American Association of Museums, Government Affairs Counsel, April 1999 American Association of Museums Annual Meeting Presentation on Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corporation. 
• The Bridgeman Art Library, Ltd. v. Corel Corp., 25 F. Supp. 2d 421 (S.D.N.Y. 1998) (LEXIS | WESTLAW) 
• Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp., 36 F. Supp. 2d 191 (S.D.N.Y. 1999) (LEXIS | WESTLAW) 
Web Rights
• Kelly v. Ariba Soft Corp. [See also http://www.ditto.com/] 
• Art, Copyright, and the Web Bibliography compiled by Jeanette Mills and Cynthia Caci (links updated August 2001)

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Aaron Resnick has handled business disputes in Miami since 1998 and is a fourth generation Miami attorney. He works hands-on on every case; the client gets Aaron on every major litigation issue, not a junior partner. The Law Offices of Aaron Resnick represents large corporations, Miami businesses and their owners, professional athletes and entertainers in Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties and across Florida in business litigation and business counsel. Call 305-672-7495 or request a consultation.

This page provides general information and is not legal advice. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome.

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