Can you please reread http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Licensing#Interaction_of_United_St... ? PD-Art never once talks about anything more than a simple photograph of the art in question, and is thus inapplicable. Further, I don't live in Cote d'Ivoire. If I did, the section I just linked says that Côte d'Ivoirian law would apply.
It would seem that you're ignoring the relevant policy:
"When uploading material from a country outside the U.S., the copyright laws of that country and the U.S. normally apply." (Commons:Licensing)
I did the restoration work in the UK, and am a UK citizen. I don't see how you can claim that UK law is *less* relevant than "the country of residence of the uploader, and the country of location of the web servers of the website", both of which *explicitly* must be satisfied.
So, let's look at "Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag"
It doesn't apply. It says right at the top: "This page relates to photographs taken from a distance only. For scans/photocopies, see Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag."
So, let's look at that page.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:When_to_use_the_PD-scan_tag
"The situation is more complex where the original raw scan has been enhanced on a selective basis, for example by means of some careful work in Photoshop to bring out certain details. This type of enhancement, although of course computer-assisted, may require a significant level of personal creative input, and as a result may generate a new copyright for the person doing the work.
"Clearly, where the work done is sufficiently extensive that the result has to be treated as a new artistic work (eg where a black and white original is ‘hand-coloured’), the image cannot be uploaded to Commons without a licence from the new copyright owner."
So, in other words, I would appear to be right. If we agree that http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:When_to_use_the_PD-scan_tag applies, it would seem you need to give me credit.
Can we agree on this and end it?
"For example, if a person in the UK uploads a picture that has been saved off a French website to the Commons server, the upload must be covered by UK, French and US copyright law."
The actual commons *policy* is that UK law applies. It even says it applies if the only interaction with the UK is that someone from the UK uploaded the thing.
To argue anything else is to rewrite Commons policy.