No designated hitters, and no interesting learning, out of Tax Court today, 5/21/13, so I went back to an oldie-but-goodie, Ileana Sonnabend, Docket No. 649-12. See my blogpost “The Eagle Sleeps Tonight?”, 2/13/13.

You remember the kerfuffle about the late Robert Rauchenberg’s 1959 post-modern masterpiece “Canyon”, featuring the famous eagle that set the art world a-twitter when IRS demanded a monumental estate tax deficiency. Ileana’s executors claimed the piece was worth nichts, nada, nothing, as it was a Federal criminal offense to sell or gift or barter or otherwise dispose of same.

IRS claimed the executors could always unload it to some offshorenik who would never come anywhere near The Land of the Free, for $65 million.

Well, you also remember Judge Wells sent the parties off to settle.

They did. Here’s the skinny, in  Ileana Sonnabend, Docket No. 649-12, filed 3/5/13. Ileana’s executors pay IRS $1,321,421.00 plus interest; no penalties.

So the eagle in fact does sleep tonight–probably in an undisclosed location.