Museums & artists' copyright

From: <akeshet[_at_]netvision.net.il>
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 98 21:35:47 PDT

On Wed, 17 Jun 1998, Alan D. Sugarman <sugarman[_at_]hyperlaw.com> wrote:
>
> Suppose a museum charges a fee of say $200 for someone to either
> photograph a work of art in its collection or copy a photograph of the
> same work, for reproduction in a book. Suppose also that the work is
> still subject to copyright.
>
> What is the practice of most museums as to whether to pass on the $200
> to the artist who in most cases will hold the right of reproduction?

We require that permission to reproduce a work of art in copyright be obtained from the artist. Our permission to reproduce (our role is usually that of producing and lending them a color transparency for publication) is conditional upon that. Naturally, we try and help the client locate the artist, other copyright holder, or agency if we can. What the artist or his/her agency charges the client is their business.

If the artist were to decline permission, we obviously would as well.

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amalyah keshet
head of visual resources, the israel museum, jerusalem e-mail: akeshet[_at_]netvision.net.il
date: 06/19/98
visit our web site at http://www.imj.org.il

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Received on Fri Jun 19 1998 - 20:06:37 GMT