Furor over online Furey art
Hamilton, Ontario. – A Hamilton art promoter who launched an online gallery on the weekend has run into a powerful detractor — the widow of Conrad Furey, one of Hamilton’s most distinguished artists.
The disagreement between Theresa Furey, who controls her husband’s estate after his death from cancer two years ago, and Movable Feast owner John Wilbur over a Furey painting illustrates how the Internet and Canadian copyright law are impacting the way artists and art consumers do business.
A private owner has put a rare Furey piece entitled The Seal Hunter up for sale. Wilbur included it in his online gallery, only to discover Furey’s widow was opposed to him using a digital image of the piece on his website.
“My point is that even if someone purchased the piece, John Wilbur would still have the ability to reproduce it and sell prints,” even if he promises he won’t, Theresa Furey said yesterday.
She said galleries as far away as Newfoundland that sell her late husband’s works have been calling her to express concern.
“For sale purposes, there is nothing stopping an owner from putting it in a catalogue” even on the Internet, said Hamilton copyright lawyer Mark Koch. “But they can’t reproduce it to make financial gain.”
Wilbur has removed The Seal Hunter from his website.
“I understand that Conrad’s wife is very protective of his work … but there is a kind of censorship issue that is raised here,” he said.
“She is controlling his work to the extent that even legitimate sales are being forestalled. But that doesn’t outweigh the moral authority that she has (over his art).”
On Saturday, John Wilbur kicked off The Movable Feast, a virtual gallery where artists can display or sell their works. The idea marries the online gallery with monthly art shows in various locations.
What makes The Movable Feast different from other web-based art galleries is he displays artists’ works in very high resolution — high enough to eventually sell top-quality reproductions — but with several layers of embedded and traceable watermark protection.
Wilbur says he will not sell any image reproductions as either single prints or collected in customized books without permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright is the crux of the matter. Legal experts say artists automatically retain the sole right of publication of their original artworks, up to and including 50 years after their death.
Artists also retain “moral rights” over their work, preventing others from using it in a way its creator did not intend, said Donald Brown, a leading intellectual property lawyer with Heydary Hamilton law firm in Toronto.
However, copyright can be sold, Brown said.
In selling art, “copyright can be explicitly assigned” to someone else, Brown said. “If it is not explicitly assigned, then it would appear that the widow in this case could arguably still retain the copyright.”
Both Wilbur and Theresa Furey admit they don’t know who owns the copyright to The Seal Hunter.
In fact, Wilbur says he doesn’t know who the private owner is, only that it is being sold through The Tiger Group, which Furey helped found close to 40 years ago. He was given permission to post The Seal Hunter by Tiger Group Studio Gallery proprietor Bill Powell.
Theresa Furey says she has never seen The Seal Hunter, although she knows of its existence.
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