Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami Challenge Counterfeit Exhibitions of Their Art in China
The artists called the exhibitions "malicious," and plan to pursue legal recourse once the responsible parties are identified.
A series of exhibitions supposedly featuring artwork by Japanese contemporary artists Yayoi Kusama and Takashi Murakami have been sweeping across China since April 2018. Kusama and Murakami’s representatives have said the artists were unaware of the stagings, and believe the works to be fakes.
On October 24, the Nikkei Asian Review reported that Kusama’s lawyers have shut down the exhibit in Shanghai, which has been on view since mid-September. They intend to seek civil and criminal action once the responsible parties are precisely identified (currently, they believe a Chinese company proposed the exhibitions to the venues).
These counterfeit exhibitions have thus far gone on view in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, and Shanghai. Certain shows requested admission, selling tickets for 60 Chinese Yuan (~$8).
“This is extremely malicious, and we are considering a similar response [to Kusama’s attorney’s],” Murakami’s attorney, Hiroshi Kamiyama, told the Review.
