Elder v. United States

65 Cust. Ct. 521, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2990
CourtUnited States Customs Court
DecidedNovember 23, 1970
DocketC.D. 4131
StatusPublished

This text of 65 Cust. Ct. 521 (Elder v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Customs Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Elder v. United States, 65 Cust. Ct. 521, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2990 (cusc 1970).

Opinion

HoseNsteiN, Judge:

Plaintiffs contend that six different marble statuaries imported from Italy and assessed for duty at 10 per centum ad valorem under paragraph 1547(a)(2), Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Annecy Protocol of Terms of Accession to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, T.D. 52476, as “Works of art, not specially provided for”, are entitled to entry free of duty under paragraph 1807(a) of said act, as amended by Public Law 86-262, either as original works of art or as one of the first ten replicas thereof.

The pertinent provisions of the Tariff Act of 1930 are as follows:

Paragraph 1547:
(a) Works of art including * * * (2) statuary, sculptures, or copies, replicas, or reproductions thereof, valued at not less than $2.50, * * *.
Paragraph 1807(a), as amended, sufra:
* * * original sculptures or statuary; but the terms “sculpture” and “statuary” as used in this paragraph shall be understood to include professional productions of sculptors only, whether in round or in relief, in bronze, marble, stone, terra cotta, ivory, wood, metal, or other materials, or whether cut, carved, or otherwise wrought by hand from the solid block or mass of marble, stone, alabaster, or from metal, or other material, or cast in bronze or other metal or substance, or from wax or plaster, or constructed from any material or made in any form as the professional productions of sculptors only, and the term “original”, as used in this paragraph to modify the words “sculptures” and “statuary”, shall be understood to include the original work or model and not more than ten castings, replicas, or reproductions made from the sculptor’s original work or model, with or without a change in scale and regardless of whether or not the sculptor is alive at the time the castings, replicas, or reproductions are completed. The terms “painting”, “mosaic”, “drawing”, “work of the free fine arts”, “sketch”, “sculpture”, and “statuary”, as used in this paragraph, shall not be understood to include any articles of utility or for industrial use, nor such as are made wholly or in part by stenciling or any other mechanical process; * * *.

The sole witness at the trial, Frederick A. Hanson, who is the architectural supervisor and a member of the Art Committee of Forest Lawn Memorial Park, testified that he had placed the order for the involved statuaries with Gino Varlecchi, a professional sculptor in Italy, now deceased. Varlecchi was commissioned to duplicate six statues at Forest Lawn. Photographs of the six statues to be copied were sent to him. As clay models of only two of the statues ordered, [523]*523“Goddess of Dawn” and “Childhood Tribute”, could be located (in Forest Lawn’s warehouse in Italy), Varlecchi had to make models of the others. Forest Lawn did not check on whether or not his clay models would correspond with the “originals” at Forest Lawn, which had also been made by Varlecchi, as they trusted him. The importations at bar are the only “reproductions” of the originals which have been commissioned by the cemetery.

To make a “reproduction” or “replica” (the witness used the words interchangeably), one can “point”, that is, pantograph, directly from the original on to the marble block, or make a clay model and plaster cast, as Varlecchi did here, and point from the cast on to the marble. The first “Goddess of Dawn” was purchased from Varlecchi for Forest Lawn by the witness when he saw a plaster cast of it in Italy. There is, Hanson conceded, an “element of doubt” as to whether Varlecchi had produced the original of this statue. Exhibit 13, an English “translation sheet” relied upon by the witness in giving his testimony, which lists the original art guide numbers, the names and origins of the subject statues, and the dates they were first imported by Forest Lawn, notes that the “Goddess of Dawn” was first imported in 1947-8, that the original is by Forzani, and the “Reproduction by Varlechi [sic]”.

The witness stated that the sculptor of the “original” “Childhood Tribute” was “supposed to be Rouranelli” who copied it from a tomb in Santa Croce Church. This piece, first imported by Forest Lawn in 1954, is described in exhibit 13 as “Reproduction by Varlechi [sic] from Original Santa Croce.”

Another statue involved herein, denominated “Good Night”, which was copied from a small plaster statue made by Dante Zoi, had been “blown up by the sculptor who did the one that we call the original one in Forest Lawn, from which this current thing [the importation] was duplicated.” Hanson did not know who made the first statue for Forest Lawn; whether Zoi’s model had ever been copied prior to Forest Lawn’s purchase of it in the “40’s”; or whether the first “Good Night” at Forest Lawn had been made by a pantograph directly from the model (the pantograph can “increase the size 100 percent”), or from a larger clay model of the original. This statue is described in exhibit 13 as “Original by Zoi” and “Reproduction by Andrini”.

The aesthetic differences between the “original” six statues at Forest Lawn and their duplicates at bar are “very slight, if any”, according to the witness. Nor is there a substantial difference between the four statues made from the new clay models produced by Varlecchi working from the photographs and their “originals” at Forest Lawn. Hanson explained: “There would be variations but, basically looking [524]*524at them a couple feet apart you would say, well, they were the same statue.” [Emphasis supplied.]

Antonio Buselli was the artist who originated the idea for the “Little Flower” statue herein; however, his models could not be located. (This statue, first imported in 1953-4, is simply listed on exhibit 13 as “original”.)

The witness testified that it may have been Andrini who originated the “Perfume of the Flowers” statue, but he subsequently stated that Rouranelli had made the statue and sold it to Forest Lawn. This piece, first imported in 1926, is described in exhibit 13 as “Sculptor unknown” and “Keproduction by Kouranelli”.

The “original” “Token of Love” statue was purchased by Forest Lawn from Yarlecchi who Hanson “assume[s] * * * originated it.” This article, first imported in 1948, is described in exhibit 13 as “Sculptor unknown” and “Keproduction by Varlechi [sic]”.

It was stipulated that the six sculptures are not articles of utility or for industrial use.

Plaintiffs contend that the “Goddess of Hawn” and “Childhood Tribute” sculptures are each one of the first ten replicas or reproductions and that the other four statues are “original” within the meaning of paragraph 1807(a), as amended.

On the record herein, we find that plaintiffs have failed to establish that the collector’s presumptively correct classification herein is erroneous or that their asserted claim is correct.

Keproductions have been held to refer to castings made from a model created by a professional sculptor. Angela Gregory v. United States, 32 Cust. Ct. 228, C.D. 1606 (1954). “The first casting from the model is regarded as the sculptor’s professional production and is the ‘original’ within the meaning of paragraph 1807; additional castings are ‘reproductions.’ ” Ward Eggleston Galleries, F.L. Kraemer and Co. v. United States, 34 Cust. Ct. 19, 22, C.D. 1670 (1955).1

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Related

United States v. Downing
6 Ct. Cust. 545 (Customs and Patent Appeals, 1916)
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Forest Lawn Memorial-Park v. United States
29 Cust. Ct. 224 (U.S. Customs Court, 1952)
Gregory v. United States
32 Cust. Ct. 228 (U.S. Customs Court, 1954)
Ward Eggleston Galleries v. United States
34 Cust. Ct. 19 (U.S. Customs Court, 1955)
Forest Lawn Co. v. United States
41 Cust. Ct. 411 (U.S. Customs Court, 1958)
Lang v. United States
45 Cust. Ct. 220 (U.S. Customs Court, 1960)
Elder v. United States
61 Cust. Ct. 50 (U.S. Customs Court, 1968)
H. H. Elder & Co. v. United States
64 Cust. Ct. 182 (U.S. Customs Court, 1970)

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Bluebook (online)
65 Cust. Ct. 521, 1970 Cust. Ct. LEXIS 2990, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elder-v-united-states-cusc-1970.