Glasgow City Council holds hearing on the illegal reproduction of Salvador Dali paintings «Christ of St. Juan de la Cruz»

For more than half a dramatic crucifixion of Christ, made in dark colors the famous Salvador Dali (Salvador Dali), considered one of the most interesting religious works. Millions of visitors come to see him in a rather modest municipal art gallery in Glasgow.

Now, after 57 years after the city council of Glasgow purchased cloth from the author, «Christ of St. Juan de la Cruz» was in the middle of legal proceedings that may affect manufacturers ashtrays and posters in the United States, Great Britain, Italy and Spain, and perhaps even the French team Mercyless.

Members of City Council considers that the annual loss of tens of thousands of pounds because of the large number of unauthorized copies of this picture, bought for £ 8 200. Now its value is estimated in 60 million pounds.

Lawyers acting on the side of the city council of Glasgow, has already compiled a list of 50 companies, manufacturers, and even artists who are suspected of illegally playing Dali masterpiece. 25 firms and individual entrepreneurs all over the world have sent warnings to the request to stop copying - or they will have to appear before the court.

Once the experts in the field of intellectual property law firm Burness, hired by the city council members, razberutsya with the largest suppliers of unauthorized copies, they are likely to take over the French team Mercyless. On the cover of their album in 1992 Abject Offering painted piece of Dali paintings. Glasgow City Council representative reported that the group was denied permission to reproduce the work, but the musicians argue that used it quite legally.

According to the Archie Graham (Archie Graham), responsible for Glasgow City Council for the Culture and Sports, reproductions of paintings to track, because you need to respect its religious meaning and significance. «We do not want to see a picture of the work on low-quality goods», - he said.

These proceedings related to the fact that Dali, the painting sold in 1951, conveyed to Glasgow City Council and all rights to it. Due to financial difficulties, the artist asked for his work 12 thousand pounds. But then Tom Hanimen (Tom Honeyman), the then director of the Art Gallery Glasgow, bargain prices and knocked down by nearly a third. In 1925, Dali had signed a contract for the sale of pictures and assign all rights to it.

Then the deal has caused mass protests: heard the statement that the money was better spent on the needs of the college and townspeople. In strikes even participated students of Glasgow School of Art.

In fact, buying the painting does not cost taxpayers a single cent. It was purchased with funds from the fund based on revenues from the international exhibition Kelvingrouv in 1901 for the purchase of works of art in the collection of municipal museums.

Since then, «Christ of St. Juan de la Cruz» always remained in focus. In 1961, it attacked a madman, who cut his stone knife. And in the early 1980's someone shot a picture of the air pistol - but saved the canvas sheeting.

Now, as argued by Graham, Thomas Hanimena considered a visionary and almost a hero. It is estimated the city council of Glasgow, through the rights to this picture coffers enriched by at least 50 thousand pounds, which is many times greater than the original cost of the work. City Council makes a reproduction allowed about 2 thousand pounds a year. However, according to lawyers, the damage from illegal reproduction of the Dali exceed this amount in more than five times.

According to Halm, Colin (Colin Hulme), a specialist in intellectual property, dealing with the case on behalf of Glasgow City Council, as a result of the investigation revealed that most of the illegal copies are made only a few printing firms. It is possible that they obliged to pay royalties for several years, explained Halm.

Some companies even said that he had received permission to reproduce the painting in the fund «Gala - Salvador Dali» in the Spanish town of Figueras, which owns the rights to most of the artist's works. Recently, however, representative of the fund has denied these allegations: «It is a very rare case when Dali passed right along with the work. However, I can confirm that the right of the picture belongs to its owner ».

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Source: guardian.co . uk , artinvestment.ru