The week before Christmas, Jeff Koons was accused of copyright infringement for creating a "blatant copy" of a French fashion ad from 1985 for his 1988 sculpture Fait d'Hiver, from the "Banality" series. According to Artnet, the sculpture has since been removed from Koons' retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, but new controversy has been sparked this week concerning another work from same series.
The wife of photographer Jean-François Bauret says that Koons ripped off her husband's photo of two naked children to create his Naked sculpture (above). Artnet reports that the sculpture was made in an edition of three, and that one of the pieces sold in 2008 for $9 million. Claude Bauret-Allard and her lawyers sent a letter to the artist and to the Centre Pompidou before the opening of the retrospective, but say that they never received responses from either party. President of the Centre Pompidou, Alain Seban, did tell the AFP in a statement that it is common for artists to appropriate images for their work.
Naked was not placed on view in the retrospective because of "slight damage" sustained during transport.
[via Artnet]
