Joan Mitchell Foundation says Vuitton ads infringe painter's copyright

The artist's organization says it has rejected fashion company's requests to use the artwork in bag ads handbags, but the luxury brand used them anyway.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Joan Mitchell Foundation sent a cease-and-desist letter to Louis Vuitton's Paris headquarters on Tuesday. , alleging that the fashion brand used the artist's paintings in advertisements for handbags after her nonprofit organization repeatedly refused to give its approval.

Mitchell, who died in 1992, is considered one of the great abstract artists of the post-war period, and her large-scale works regularly sell for over $1 million at auction. At least three of his paintings, known for their vibrant symphony of colors, appear in current Vuitton advertisements featuring Léa Seydoux, the actress.

The letter from the Foundation, which was reviewed by The New York Times, claims Louis Vuitton infringed the artist's copyright and is demanding that the luxury fashion brand withdraw its marketing campaign within three days or face legal action.

"It is a grave disappointment to the Joan Mitchell Foundation that Louis Vuitton has such disregard for an artist's rights and exploits their work for profit", the association, which has overseen the artist's intellectual property since 1993, said in a statement, adding that it "has never authorized the artist's work to be used in commercial campaigns". authorizing use of the work for educational purposes only. unauthorized use of the works has been posted on the foundation's website.

Louis Vuitton's parent company, LVMH, said in an email: "Louis Vuitton will not comment. ”

ImageScreenshot of a Louis Vuitton campaign that uses a painting by Joan Mitchell as a backdrop for the actress Léa Seydoux and a handbag. The artist's foundation said it rejected the brand's requests to use the artwork for this campaign. The painting appears to be cropped and without any credit to Mitchell as the artist.

The letter comes at a delicate time for the fashion house. Mitchell is currently the subject of a acclaimed exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, a contemporary art space in Paris opened by LVMH, where the artist's paintings are compared to those of Claude Monet; the show will be suspended for another week.

The Joan Mitchell Foundation said it was also sending a separate cease and desist letter to the Foundation, stating that she had violated a license agreement for the Mitchell exhibition which prevents Vuitton from reproducing works from the "Monet-Mitchell" exhibition without consent.

"I was shocked “, Christa Blatchford, director of Joan Mitchell Foundation, said in an interview Monday. She said she heard about the ad campaign when she saw the Vuitton ad that included part of a painting by Mitchell in The New York Times earlier this month. Blatchford said last December she turned down Louis Vuitton's request to use the artist's paintings in the ad campaign. (An employee representing the fashion brand confirmed receiving this rejection message in January, according to emails reviewed by The Times.)

Later in the month , Blatchford received another email on behalf of Jean-Paul Claverie, adviser to Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH and one of the richest people in the world. The email emp...