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ARTICLE · 13 AUGUST 2012

Tax Bill Lands On Illegal Eagle

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Recently, one of Robert Rauschenberg’s works captured attention for an uncommon tax and art valuation imbroglio surrounding the combine, Canyon.

United StatesTax
Securities And Corporate Finance Group
Securities And Corporate Finance Group
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An artistic work's beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but its valuation for taxation purposes is in the eye of the Internal Revenue Service. Recently, one of Robert Rauschenberg's works captured attention for an uncommon tax and art valuation imbroglio surrounding the combine, Canyon. The IRS claims the work is worth $65 million and that the owners of the work owe $40 million in estate taxes for the work, despite having received three expert appraisals that held the work to be valueless.

The owners and appraisers of the work contend that the work (which incorporates a taxidermy specimen of a bald eagle, shot and stuffed by one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders) is valueless because selling the work constitutes a felony under The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (16 U.S.C. 668). Enacted in 1940, the Act prohibits anyone to "take, possess, sell, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, at any time or any manner,

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