Law & Politics
Jeff Koons Beats Copyright Infringement Claims in ‘Made in Heaven’ Lawsuit
A federal appeals court upheld a ruling that sculptor Michael Hayden waited too long to sue over the controversial series.
A federal appeals court upheld a ruling that sculptor Michael Hayden waited too long to sue over the controversial series.
Jo Lawson-Tancred ShareShare This Article
A U.S. appeals court upheld a ruling in favor of Jeff Koons in a copyright dispute over his iconic “Made in Heaven” series, rejecting the claims of a sculptor who had accused Koons of using one of his works without permission.
Prop designer Michael Hayden first sought compensation in 2021 for the appearance of his 1988 sculpture in three works from Koons’s series, made between 1989 and 1990. As Hayden himself acknowledged in his filing, the series caused “a media sensation” and has been credited with “launching Mr. Koons into the art world’s stratosphere.” Despite this, Hayden claimed to have only discovered the alleged infringement in 2019.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Timothy Reif ruled that Hayden had waited too long to sue Koons. Given the success of “Made in Heaven,” it could be reasonably expected that he would have registered the alleged infringement decades earlier. The latest ruling upholds this decision, effectively ending the years-long dispute.
A court document released on Tuesday states that “a reasonably diligent copyright holder should have discovered the alleged infringement,” basing this argument on the fact that Hayden lived in Italy and consumed Italian media at the time that “Made in Heaven” debuted in 1990. The works’ display at the Venice Biennale that year prompted a media uproar for its explicit depictions of Koons’s sexual exploits with his then-wife, Ilona Staller, the Italian porn star and politician known as La Cicciolina.
A lawyer representing Koons declined to comment on the decision. Representatives for Hayden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sculpture at the heart of the dispute features a giant serpent wrapped around a rock that Hayden made in 1988 for Staller. It was intended as a platform on which she “could perform sexually explicit scenes, both live and on camera,” according to court papers. It was sold to Staller’s company Diva Futura, but Hayden said he did not “assign authorship, copyright ownership, or sublicensing rights to Diva Futura or anyone else,” and did not intend for it to be used for commercial purposed by anyone outside of Diva Futura.
In 1989, Koons traveled frequently to Italy to be photographed with Staller. The images became the source material for the sculptures, photographs, and paintings that comprise the “Made in Heaven” series. Hayden’s lawsuit pertained to three images from this group: a 1989 lithograph initially commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art that was displayed as a billboard in downtown New York City, a polychromed wood sculpture featuring a three-dimensional replica of the original work, and an oil-on-canvas painting titled Jeff in the Position of Adam (1990).
Hayden’s lawsuit claimed that Koons never sought the sculptor’s permission for the images, nor credited him or paid a licensing fee.
The so-called “discovery rule” the judges cited in the dismissal of the case is a legal principle that measures the statute of limitations from the time that a wrongful act is discovered, not when it occurs. According to Tuesday’s ruling, it “does not allow plaintiffs to bury their heads in the sand, ignore widespread international media coverage of allegedly infringing art, and then sue for potential infringement some 30 years later.”