As an art and intellectual property lawyer and professor of art law who has written and spoken extensively on this topic of authentication and forgeries, I was shocked to learn that another attorney plagiarized my work on the subject. To stay up-to-date on developments, I read as much about art law topics as possible. As I began reading an article about completing due diligence to avoid the purchase of a forgery, I realized that I was reading my own words! Another attorney had plagiarized an article of mine that was published last year. The irony: an IP attorney has infringed upon my IP by copying an article that I wrote about copying. The writer, Tejshree Savara, Director of the Savara Arts Foundation (a foundation founded by her parents) and an attorney at Anand and Anand, went as far as lifting entire paragraphs of my scholarly publication, and then refitting them into her piece. The piece reads as if it is her editorial, and she neither cites or acknowledges my work. To compare the pieces, find my original work here and the plagiarizing piece here.
When you plagiarize an intellectual property attorney…
Infuriated by the misrepresentation, I sent a letter to the plagiarizer. Please read the text of the letter below. I will provide updates on the status of this matter.
Leila Amineddoleh
Re: The Rise of Fakes and False Attributions in the Art World
Dear Ms. Savara:
We recently read your article in Tehelka, an investigative news magazine, and we noted its depth of knowledge and perspective. However, it immediately struck us that the work is not your own. As you note in your publication, Pablo Picasso once said, “[w]e know that art is not the truth.” Unfortunately, without proper attribution, neither is your article.
As a copyright attorney, you must know that copyright infringement is a serious offence. Over half of your article comprises an unauthorized word-for-word plagiarism of Leila Amineddoleh’s recent work “Purchasing Art in a Market Full of Forgeries: Risks and Legal Remedies for Buyers.” Borrowing your own language, which is scant in the article, “[f]ake works of art can take many different forms . . . [s]ome of the most common are the unauthorized reproductions that violate the copyright of the artist.” Through your plagiaristic article, you present irrefutable evidence that it is common indeed, even for professionals writing on the very topic of illicit copying.
Ms. Amineddoleh wrote the above-referenced article and published it in an international legal journal in 2015. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Ms. Amineddoleh would have been flattered if your piece properly attributed her. However, you failed to do so in clear violation of multiple U.S. and international laws, including explicit laws under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the Berne Convention. Damages under U.S. law for copyright infringement can include both actual and statutory damages, attorneys’ fees, and elevated damages due to your “willful” infringement of Ms. Amineddoleh’s work. See 17 U.S. Code § 504. As Ms. Amineddoleh’s work is publicly accessible, and because there is no reasonable explanation for the appearance of Ms. Amineddoleh’s exact language in your article, we are certain that willfulness can be proven quite easily. We will pursue this infringement matter to the fullest extent of the law, not only to protect Ms. Amineddoleh’s intellectual property rights, but to demonstrate that forgeries and copying should not be tolerated in any field or on any level.
While the law may be clear, your willful intentions in unlawfully reproducing Ms. Amineddoleh’s work and taking undue credit are not apparent. The irony of a copyright attorney’s blatant copyright violation in her nearly verbatim regurgitation of a piece written by another copyright attorney about the topic of copying and misattribution would be comedy gold in any other situation. We’re not sure if you see the irony here, but we are certain that many others will.
Still, this is no laughing matter. You understand the importance of proper attribution and, at the very least, it is clear that you are familiar with Ms. Amineddoleh’s work. Ms. Amineddoleh deserves the same attribution for her work in the arts as artists do for theirs. We are informing Tehelka and your law firm of your plagiarized article and we expect that you will rectify this situation. If you have any questions, our firm specializes in intellectual property, and we’d be happy to educate you on issues concerning copyright infringement, misrepresentation, plagiarism, and attribution.
Please respond to this letter within 10 days. Feel free to contact our law firm if you have any questions or, alternatively, if you are represented by counsel, have your attorney contact us.