Can I put an old painting on the cover of my book without violating the law?
AFAIK the copyright for a painting expires after 70 years. Hence, if a painting was created in 1874 and 70 years expired in 1944, it should be legal to put in on a cover of a book to appear in 2014.
Right?
Answer
The copyright may have expired after 70 years. But, depending on the law of the relevant country, the owner of the painting (or any other object) may have the right to forbid the commercial use of reproductions of his property.
Similar to a "model release", with which a human model allows a photographer the usage of her likeness, there is a "property release" for photos made on or of someone's property. Here is the one from Corbis: http://studioplus.corbis.com/InfoPlus/Downloadable_Documents.aspx?secure=guest (scroll down and select your language).
In their gallery rules, published on their website, the Tate states that:
Photography in the main galleries is allowed for personal, non-commercial purposes only.
This means that any image (= photographic reproduction) you might grab from the web was either made for non-commercial use (scholarly publication) or for a specific commercial use (excluding yours).
If you want to use an image (= photo) of one of the paintings in the collection of the Tate commercially, you must use their image licensing service at www.tate-images.com, which will also provide you with an image file you can use in the publishing process. If you register you can calculate the price for your usage.
I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
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