Jeff Koons convicted of plagiarism: allegedly copied an advertisement from the 1980s

In Paris, the local Tribunal de grande instance (i.e., France’s civil court of first instance) has ordered Jeff Koons, his production company Jeff Koons LLC, and the Centre Pompidou to pay 135,000 euros in damages: the court charges Jeff Koons with plagiarizing an advertisement from the 1980s, and the Centre Pompidou with exhibiting the work in 2014. Koons’s work is a porcelain titled Fait d’hiver: it depicts a pig in the snow, in the company of a pair of penguins, moving toward a naked woman, clad in a fishnet sweater that allows a glimpse of her breasts, who turns her gaze to the animal.

According to the court, the work, created by Koons in 1988, is a plagiarism of a 1985 advertisement for the clothing brand Naf Naf, in which the same animal was seen running to the rescue, complete with a St. Bernard dog barrel (as in Koons’ work), of a woman lying in the snow. The publicist who authored the advertisement, Franck Davidovici, had initially demanded 300,000 euros in damages (a figure, however, considerably less than the estimated value of Koons’s work, purchased by the Prada Foundation in 2007 for 4 million euros), as well as the confiscation of the sculpture. The trial had begun with Davidovici’s complaint in January 2015. The judge rejected defense arguments that Koons acted motivated by freedom of artistic expression, the work was to be considered a parody of advertising, and Davidovici’s complaint came too late.

Pictured: on the left Davidovici’s advertisement, on the right Koons’ work.

Jeff Koons convicted of plagiarism: allegedly copied an advertisement from the 1980s

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