Art in Court: Maier Museum, Marion True, Getty Bronze, Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Portrait of Wally," Robert De Niro

Is the artworld getting increasingly litigious? While I've been focused on the saleroom, there's been so much going on in the courtroom that I need to do an international round-up of artworld legal developments:

---First and foremost, let's remember good causes during this holiday season and consider the desperate fundraising campaign of the embattled opponents to the Maier Museum's art sales. They need to raise a cool million by Dec. 3 to secure the court injunction that they won Nov. 16 against the disposals. According to Preserve Educational Choice (the organization leading the effort to keep the four paintings---including an important Bellows---at Randolph College), "Grassroots efforts are already underway in Lynchburg and within the larger national arts community to help meet this fundraising challenge." For information about how to contribute, go here. There is a pledge form here. (Use pull-down menu to get to "Art Defense Fund.")

---Marion True, the Getty Museum's beleaguered former antiquities curator, continues her midlife career as defendant in foreign courts: Greece still, at least for now, is still continuing its legal vendetta against her, despite the fact that the Getty has turned over the goods, as promised in an agreement signed last February. True's lawyer submitted a motion in Greek court for dismissal of charges against her.

---Meanwhile, an Italian judge ruled against a legal claim for the Getty Bronze made by prosecutors in Pesaro, Italy. The ruling, which may be appealed, was "a blow to Italy's battle to claim the work," according to a report by ANSA, the Italian news agency. ANSA also says that 39 of the antiquities that the Getty has agreed to relinquish to Italy are being flown there "in batches and should be in Rome by Christmas." The so-called Aphrodite takes flight in 2010.

---Andrew Lloyd Webber wins one in NY Supreme Court, where Judge Rolando Acosta decided, on technical grounds, against a Nazi-loot claim for the composer's Picasso, "Angel Fernández de Soto." No word yet on whether the painting, which was to have been sold at Christie's a year ago, will be put back on the block.

---William Cohan reports in the December ARTnews (no link yet) that U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska (who took over the never-ending "Portrait of Wally" Nazi-loot case from newly appointed U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey) "may decide sometime next year how much longer the Schiele painting must remain under house arrest in a "secure, undislosed location." According to ARTnews, Judge Preska set the end of this month as "the deadline for the filing of each side's summary judgment motions" and Mar. 28 as "the deadline for responses and replies....She will then rule on the motions and decide whether to try the case at all."

We won't hold our breath.

---Last, and probably least, actor Robert De Niro has joined the list of boldface names with a beef against embattled dealer Lawrence Salander, whose gallery showed works by the actor's late father, Robert De Niro Sr.