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Owning Nothingness: Between The Legal And The Social Norms Of The Art World, Guy A. Rub
Owning Nothingness: Between The Legal And The Social Norms Of The Art World, Guy A. Rub
BYU Law Review
Almost $8 million—that is what the Crystal Bridges Museum paid for one work of contemporary art in November 2015. What did that museum get for that hefty sum? From a legal perspective, absolutely nothing. The work it purchased was just an idea, and ideas of this kind escape legal protection.
Despite this lack of legal protection, the social norms of the art world lead large, sophisticated, experienced, and legally represented institutes to pay millions of dollars for this type of work. This Article is one of the first in legal scholarship to examine at depth those norms in this multibilliondollar …