Overview
- The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York on Friday, August 20, and names painter Elizabeth Peyton, David Zwirner Gallery, and Sotheby’s as defendants.
- Photographer Justin Thomas says Peyton’s Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) (1996) is a near-identical, or “slavish,” painted copy of his 1995 Earls Court photograph and that the only changes were medium, slight cropping, color shifts, and minor painted details.
- The painting sold at Sotheby’s New York in May for $1.92 million, a fact the complaint uses to underline the commercial stakes of the alleged copying.
- Thomas alleges Sotheby’s first sought to license his photograph for an online catalogue in April, then removed it at an artist representative’s request and negotiated a reduced fee, which he says amounted to an effort to obscure the painting’s photographic source.
- Peyton’s practice of painting from photographs and past copyright disputes that involved her work mean this case could affect how courts treat visual art as fair use and could change how galleries and auction houses screen and reproduce images.