Publishing images of paintings
My wife and I are working on a book that will contain photographs of paintings that were exhibited, with owner permission, in shows hung by wife or obtained from other photographs. All of the works are by the same artist. She is not doing the book for profit. It is purely a public service to help preserve and increase local knowledge concerning a local self-taught artist who died in 1982. My wife has a record of the owners of all the works. However, many of them are deceased. If she publishes photos of the paintings in her book, with attribution to the last known owner, but does not have written permission to do so, what is her liability exposure?
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1 answer
Unless the copyright protection period has expired, those works are copyright and if you use them without permission, you could be sued. Copyrights are property and are part of the estate of a deceased person. The copyright holders are the heirs. Any publisher you approach is going to insist on your getting copyright releases for those works. Also note that the photograph of a painting is a copyrighted work in its own right, even if the original painting is out of copyright. IANAL, however. If you are concerned about liability, consult a qualified copyright lawyer.
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