What’s the fuss for, you might ask. That a fashion designer translates a famous painting into his own sign language by applying it to a dress or a coat and literally making it work – wasn’t that always the case? Only a year ago, selected clothes by Yves Saint Laurent stood in six Parisian museums next to the works of art that had served as models. The couturier had tailored a blouse imagined in oil by Henri Matisse down to the last cross-stitch, a cubist guitar painting by Picasso had become a cape, the legendary Mondrian sheath dress flanked the real Piet Mondrian in the Center Pompidou.
Had Saint Laurent previously asked the artists or the lawyers guarding their work for permission? One can at least doubt it. The dress of the same name was actually a stroke of luck for Mondrian, who was hardly known in 1965: his work received a whole new impetus via the Parisian boutiques.
The Uffizi owns the rights to Botticelli’s Venus
When Jean Paul Gaultier, one of the most famous contemporary fashion designers, captures the “Birth of Venus” on fabric, one of the most famous paintings of the early Renaissance, it initially resonates business as usual. The motif of the goddess Venus, created by Sandro Botticelli around 1485, posing naked on a shell, has long since found its way into pop and everyday culture. Today it adorns tablecloths, shopping bags and monthly planners. But the rights to this masterpiece, and that could become a problem, belong to the museum that houses it: the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Gaultier should have at least asked permission. Apparently he didn’t do that.
A top with Botticelli’s Venus could now be quite expensive for fashion house Gaultier.
(Photo: instagram: @jeanpaulgaultier)
Italy protects cultural assets with a 2004 Code of Laws issued by the Ministry of Culture that goes well beyond standard copyright law. The idea behind it: It shouldn’t be possible to sell the country’s many cultural treasures commercially, at least not in such a way that Italy doesn’t benefit from them. Article 107 stipulates that public reproductions of works of art, such as Botticelli’s Venus, require prior approval. Article 108 contains the conditions for reproduction. The fees are defined by the institution that exhibits the work of art, in this case the Uffizi Gallery. The amount usually depends on how big the business is made using such products – and in the case of Jean Paul Gaultier, the business is not entirely small.
In the spring, Gaultier advertised the designer pieces in the face of Venus.
(Photo: instagram: @jeanpaulgaultier)
590 euros for a dress, 150 euros for a scarf with the divine face of Venus: the designer had these pieces on his website in spring advertised on Instagram; some can still be found on second-hand sites on the internet. As he had not obtained permission for the replica, the Uffizi requested the fashion house to contact them immediately with a view to working out an agreement; otherwise all products would have to be withdrawn from the market. Since Gaultier did not respond, the museum has now filed a lawsuit to sue for the fees. The British Guardians according to it could be trade for more than 100,000 euros.
Eike Schmidt, the German director of the Uffizi, told the media fashion houses are usually well informed about how Italian law works. It’s not about millions of euros in fees, but about a few tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. What is special about this case is that the designer simply ignored the warning from Florence. In fashion, on the other hand, the horror should be limited. There they have been calling Gaultier the “enfant terrible” since the 1970s, and quite affectionately.