Did Roger Waters of Pink Floyd plagiarize Emilio Isgrò? Meanwhile, the sale of the new record is blocked

The Court of Milan has ruled that sales in Italy of the latest album by Roger Waters, the historic leader of Pink Floyd, now active as a solo artist, should be blocked. The album cover, Is this the life we really want?, was in fact judged to be a plagiarism of the very famous erasures by Emilio Isgrò, one of the greatest contemporary Italian artists.

According to Judge Silvia Giani, who handled the case, Waters’ album cover would slavishly reproduce Isgrò’s work, given also the perceptions on the part of music critics and art critics who, as soon as they saw the cover, immediately thought of the Sicilian artist’s works. The judge therefore established the final block to the marketing of the album, which, released on June 2, had already been withdrawn from the market in the same month: a block that was then suspended on June 27 to allow negotiations to take place between the two parties and finally established again in the last few hours. All that remains, then, is to await the next moves by Roger Waters and the record company: there is speculation of an appeal, or a financial settlement with the artist, or even (although this route seems the least likely) a new album cover.

Image: left, the cover of Is this the life we really want? by Roger Waters (2017). Right, Emilio Isgrò’s work, Erasing (1964; ink on newspaper mounted on cardboard in Plexiglas block, 84.5 x 84.5 cm; Private collection)

Did Roger Waters of Pink Floyd plagiarize Emilio Isgrò? Meanwhile, the sale of the new record is blocked

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