Eve Sinaiko wrote: "One cannot buy the rights to a work by buying the work (which is why MOMA doesn't own the copyrights to Matisse's paintings, for example)."
What Eve says is correct for published works, but the question of Matisse paintings purchased by MoMA is theoretically more problematic. Remember the Pushman Doctrine, which established that the transfer of unpublished works by an artist in New York prior to 1966 transferred to the purchaser the copyright in those works unless the copyright in the works was expressly reserved by the artist. It is quite likely that MoMA acquired the copyright in some of the artworks it purchased prior to 1966, when the Pushman Doctrine was reversed by the state legislature. It is possible that the common law of other states might have kept the Pushman Doctrine in place in those states until 1978, when unpublished art work was first protected by Federal copyright. Whether anyone wants to fight with artists and their estates over copyright is another matter. Peter B. Hirtle
