Ip and Art: an International Perspective

• Publication year: 2020
• Author: Cristina Manasse

IP and Art: An International Perspective

Cristina Manasse

Manasse Studio Legale, Milan

James C. Roberts III

Global Capital Law Group PC

IN DENMARK OWNERSHIP OF AN ARTWORK DOES NOT IMPLY OWNERSHIP OF ALL IP RIGHTS

If you buy a painting can you cut it into little pieces and sell each piece or give the piece to your friends? Not in Denmark, according to a high court in Copenhagen, in interpreting the Danish Copyright Act. This case added more weight to a general principle applied in the EU: the owner of an artwork does not automatically own the rights linked to it, in particular, the copyright. While the case is about the rights of an artist, the decision also rested on differing interpretations of certain words, such as "destruction" and "trader."

What Happened?

Last December, the Danish Maritime and Commercial High Court in Copenhagen issued a decision¹ halting the plans of a Danish luxury watch company to slice and dice a painting they had acquired from a Danish artist and then include the miniscule slices in the watch faces of their luxury watches.

Dann Thorleifsson and Arne Leivsgard, founders of the Danish company, Kanske Denmark ApS, which had a line of luxury watches, wanted to launch a new, and apparently trendier, watch line under the brand, Letho, in 2019. The company and its luxury watch brand can be described as somewhat "edgy." As the Facebook page of the company states "Each design is specially designed to fit Kanske's vision, which is to combine minimalistic classical watch design, with an urban and trendy touch, using the most outstanding technology and methods known to perfect the art of watch making."

Cutting Edge Watches and Cutting Up a Painting

As far as can be understood, the two decided to take a contemporary artwork by a well-known artist and cut it up into miniscule pieces that would be part of the new watch's watch face. As it turns out, in 2017 the two of them had purchased just such a piece from a London gallery-the painting Paris Chic by Danish artist Tal Rosenzweig, already a well-known artist under the moniker or Tal R who worked across media, including installation pieces. Rosenzweig's work was chosen because, explained Tholiefsson "We needed an artist that was esteemed by experts because we also needed to get a reaction. If we just took a $100 canvas, no one would really care. It needed to be a true masterpiece." They already owned the piece so, why not?

Initially, Kanske Danske announced that an auction would be hosted online, promising the winner the right to decide which piece of the artwork would go on his/her watch. For clients not attending the online auction, pre-made wristwatches...