PARIS • Paris' appeals court has upheld an order for American pop artist Jeff Koons to pay damages after deeming his sculpture Naked had plagiarised another artwork.
The court stood by a ruling two years ago that found the 1988 porcelain sculpture of two naked children had copied a photograph by French artist Jean-Francois Bauret, according to documents seen by Agence France-Presse.
It said the artist's company, Jeff Koons LLC, and Pompidou Centre in Paris, where his work was due to be displayed, must together pay €20,000 (S$30,114) to Bauret's family.
Jeff Koons LLC must pay another €4,000 to the family of the photographer - he died in 2014 - for using a picture of the sculpture, part of his Banality series, on his website.
Koons, 64, has often been accused of plagiarism, but he has said he is merely an appropriation artist.
The Naked sculpture was due to have been displayed in a major Koons retrospective at the Pompidou contemporary art museum from November 2014 to April 2015.
It never went on show because it was damaged during transport, but pictures of it were reproduced in advertising and media reports.
The sculpture, which stands just over 1m-high, depicts a boy offering a bouquet of flowers to a young girl.
The court ruled that the sculpture was a copy of Bauret's photograph Enfants, which was published in 1975 in the form of a postcard.
Last year, a Paris court said Koons had copied a 1980s advertisement for clothing chain Naf Naf for his 1988 Fait d'Hiver - also part of the Banality Series - which shows a pig standing over a woman lying on her back.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
