The Uffizi Gallery in Florence announced on Monday that it is suing French fashion house Jean Paul Gaultier for “unauthorized use” of Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’, her masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance. Painted by Sandro Botticelli in the mid-1480s, it depicts the nude goddess Venus standing on a huge conch shell, her loins covered with her long blond hair.
Gaultier used the image “on several garments, of which it published photos on its website and social media,” according to the Italian museum. It attached screenshots showing a model wearing pants with part of the Venus painting printed on the back. Over the buttocks is printed the part of the scene with the god Zephyr blowing the wind.
Other items sold by Gaultier – known for his bold designs – include a Venus scarf for €150 and a Venus dress for €590. Gaultier used the painting “without permission” and failed to pay for the rights, the Uffizi said, adding that they would seek damages. A letter sent to the luxury fashion house in April was ignored. The museum asked Gaultier to withdraw the items from the market or reach a financial settlement.
The museum is one of the most important in the world and houses works by some of the greatest painters of the Renaissance, from Botticelli to Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio and Titian. Botticelli, who died in 1510, is best known for The Birth of Venus and Spring, both of which are in the Uffizi Gallery.
Some museums around the world, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, have made many of their works available to the public, making them free of copyright.(AFP)
This translated and edited post previously appeared on FashionUnited.uk.