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Strolling through an art museum can evoke all kinds of thoughts and feelings. But how the pieces of art are insured probably isn’t top of mind.
The Indianapolis Bar Association will be hosting a continuing legal education course at Indianapolis’ art museum Newfields on Nov. 13 to discuss aspects of insuring art galleries and large-scale events.
Lewis Wagner LLP attorney Meghan Ruesch will be part of a panel for the event. She is also vice chair of education for the Insurance Coverage Section at IndyBar.
She said the sections have a symposium each year that is about a three-hour long CLE and have smaller CLE events that are similar to the TED Talk format.
“We also try to do every year something a little more specialized, something that just has a unique take, the unique spin on insurance, because, let’s face it, it’s not the most exciting area of the law,” Ruesch said.
She said insurance impacts so much of people’s daily lives. One year the section hosted a CLE at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and talked about the specialized considerations for insurance and risk management that Penske Racing faces.
This is the first time the section is hosting an event at Newfields.
The museum has large events like Harvest Nights and Winterlights each year in addition to offering its wide collections. For the past few years now, the museum also has had the immersive experience called The LUME.
Currently, The LUME features four original pieces by Salvador Dali. Previously it presented Vincent van Gogh paintings.
Ruesch said they plan to talk about the pieces and installations like the LUME at the CLE.
“To then turn around and talk about something like insurance for it takes away a little bit of the magic, maybe, but it is important to protect those pieces and also the people coming to see it,” Ruesch said. “It is something that, as professionals involved in the insurance industry and the risk management industry, we kind of look at so that people can continue to experience and enjoy those pieces, and the museum and everyone involved knows that there is a layer of protection for it.”
Ruesch added that there are unique insurance issues that come up when works of art are on loan from either a personal collection or another museum. The section plans to discuss those as well.
Plews Shadley Racher & Braun LLP Partner Ryan Leagre is the other vice chair of education for the Insurance Coverage Section at IndyBar.
He gave two examples of cases they are looking at discussing.
“The idea is to provide examples of specific types of claims that arise in the art world, from house fires and natural disasters to famous thefts,” Leagre said.
The first example he gave was Ronald Perelman v. Underwriters of Lloyd et al., which is before the New York Supreme Court.
In 2020, Ronald Perelman — a billionaire banker — sued a group of insurers for $410 million for five “blue-chip” paintings that were damaged when a fire broke out at his estate in the Hamptons in September 2018.
The paintings include two by Ed Ruscha, two by Andy Warhol, and one by Cy Twomply.
The insurers, who have already paid out $141 million for other fire-related damage, denied the claim for these five pieces of artwork. They dispute whether the paintings suffered any damage at all, pointing to the distance between the paintings and where the fire occurred.
The insurers have also alleged that Perelman attempted to sell the artwork after the fire, despite testifying that he did not do so, and that he has since sold two pieces of art that were exposed to the same conditions as the five paintings.
According to a May article from ARTnews, the case is headed to trial.
“The case covers everything from the complicated process of valuing fine art and allegations of fraud and perjury,” League said.
Another case the section is looking at discussing is the 1994 art theft from Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt Germany.
Three paintings were on loan from the Tate Gallery in London when they were stolen.
The gallery’s insurer paid $36.3 million. In return, the insurers were given title to the paintings if they were ever recovered.
The Tate later decided to buy the titles back for about a third of the original insurance payment.
Years later, after an investigation, the paintings were found and bought back for approximately $300,000.
In the end, the Tate recovered the paintings and a large insurance payout.
The CLE will be at 9 a.m. on Nov. 13 at Newfields.
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