A five-page letter was delivered to Maurizio Cattelan (Padua, 1960) by Scott Allan Burroughs, of the law firm Doniger Burroughs (with offices in New York and Venice, California), to point out the evident similarity between Sunday (2024) – presented by the Italian artist at Gagosian in New York and which gives its title to the entire exhibition curated by Francesco Bonami – and the series Bullet Of Anthony James (UK, 1974), British-American artist based in Los Angeles. Both, in fact, consist of sheets of shiny stainless metal (gold plated by Cattelan and mirrored by James) pierced by bullet holes. And it seems that the latest one has been carrying out this type of work for at least 10 years.
Maurizio Cattelan accused of plagiarism. The accusations of Anthony James
There are various requests that Maurizio Cattelan is called upon to meet, from the report which describes the inspiration and the creative process of his Sunday, to explanations of the obvious similarities with the series Bullet: “only when the differences exceed the similarities and when the latter are relatively unimportant can the person called into question be acquitted, but here the similarities concern practically all the choices made both in the creation and in the manufacturing of the work”, explains Burroughs citing a similar situation dating back to 1992 between Jeff Koons and Art Rogers. Cattelan respondedas Calvin Tomkins of the New Yorker reports, avoided commenting publicly on the story, although in private he confided to the journalist that “the resemblance is extraordinary” and that all he could do was wish them both good luck. But James counters, adding that Cattelan would, consequently, also damage his market, creating confusion about a work that has identified him for years. In fact, the Italian artist’s panels are individually worth 375,000 dollars, while those of the American 40,000.
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Maurizio Cattelan accused of plagiarism. The response of Gagosian and Francesco Bonami
From the New York headquarters of Gagosian which hosts Sunday declare that they do not agree with the accusations made against their artist, while the curator and friend Francesco Bonami adds to Katya Kazakina of Artnet News: “Cattelan didn’t know about James’ work. He’s never seen it and they don’t have the same meaning. A crucifixion is a cross with a type nailed to it. And they have been doing so from the 3rd century until today. No one complained about someone copying someone else. It’s ridiculous to say, ‘I did this before the others’”. However, the fact that Anthony James has already exhibited his series between New York and Milan works against the latter and therefore it seems practically impossible that Cattelan, living between the two cities, has never seen it.
Maurizio Cattelan accused of plagiarism. It’s not the first time…
You could say Cattelan he is no stranger to this type of accusation: famous is the case of the banana fixed with adhesive tape, presented at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, called to trial by Joe Morford which accused the Italian artist (who was later acquitted) of copyright infringement, explaining that this was too similar to his work Banana and Orange; in 2022, however, the Frenchman Daniel Druet stated that 9 of Cattelan’s best-known works were based on his wax models, asking for 5 million dollars as consolation compensation. But even in this case Cattelan got away with it.
Caterina Angelucci
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