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German Painter George Grosz’s Heirs Sue MoMA

Allegedly consorting with “thieves trafficking in stolen artworks” more than 50 years ago has led to a lawsuit against the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) by the purported rightful owners of three paintings by German painter George Gorsz. After mocking Hitler, Gorsz was exiled from Nazi Germany in 1933 and forced to leave behind the paintings of which the MoMA is currently in possession.

Gorsz’s son and daughter-in-law claim that MoMA negligently obtained the paintings, worth as much as $10 million, in 1952 from a dealer who specialized in art looted by the Nazis.  In the lawsuit, Gorsz’s heirs say this violates the museum’s “self-imposed ethical standards not to hold in its collection artworks tainted by Nazi persecution.” MoMA has not yet commented on the lawsuit.

I’m wondering if the heirs are really after the paintings, or if they are just seeking compensation. No word on what they would do if they win the lawsuit, but it seems possible that they’d just turn around and sell the paintings to the highest-bidding dealer. What is the true value of an artist’s works to his or her heirs?

Romance Novel Sales Remain High During Recession

According to The New York Times, sales of romance novels remain high despite the recession, and it turns out that all people really want (besides a job, a home, or a positive 401(k) balance) is a little sizzle. Reports Motoko Rich:

Harlequin Enterprises, the queen of the romance world, reported that fourth-quarter earnings were up 32 percent over the same period a year earlier, and Donna Hayes, Harlequin’s chief executive, said that sales in the first quarter of this year remained very strong. While sales of adult fiction overall were basically flat last year, according to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks about 70 percent of retail sales, the romance category was up 7 percent after holding fairly steady for the previous four years.

At Barnes & Noble, the country’s largest book chain, where its chief financial officer, Joe Lombardi, recently warned that overall 2009 sales were likely to fall between 4 percent and 6 percent, sales of romance novels are up. And in the first three months of this year Nielsen Bookscan tracked a 2.4 percent rise in romance sales compared with a slight decline in sales of general adult fiction for the same period. Those figures may underestimate the demand for romance, since a significant portion of sales come from retailers like Wal-Mart that are not tracked by Bookscan.

Apparently, the combination of the low cost of romance novels ($8 per book, on average) and the genre’s legion of very loyal readers continues to drive sales. Romance novels have also caught on in the electronic book market faster than other categories. For most publishers, only about one percent of sales comes from e-books; for Harlequin,  e-books account for 3.4%  of sales, says the Times.

Normally, I’d make some kind of trenchant comment about romance novels, but those kind of figures (ha-ha) have got me thinking about authoring a bodice ripper of my own.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books April 25 & 26

Los Angeles doesn’t exactly have a reputation as a literary town, but for two days every April, it is transformed into the nation’s epicenter of letters when the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books crops up at UCLA. According to the LA Times website, “The Festival is a free public event, and includes exciting author events, storytelling, cooking demonstrations and poetry readings. The Festival of Books also includes nearly 300 exhibitor booths representing booksellers, publishers, literacy and cultural organizations.” This year’s author list includes a mix of writers, including Aimee Bender, Mary Higgins Clark, T.C. Boyle, Ray Bradbury, Mary Gaitskill, Antonya Nelson, Robert Pinsky, Marilynne Robinson, Gore Vidal, Wells Tower, and some 450 others.  But the best part of the Festival of Books is that, unlike pretty much everything else in L.A., the event is free. For more information, the website is http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/index.html.