Citing “the strong public policy against attempting to use a court of law to perpetrate a fraud upon the public,” a federal judge has dismissed a bid to coerce an artist to acknowledge creating a work he did not create and does not like, and then selling the work as an authentic creation.
Gilbert v. Indiana centers on a popular and iconic work of artist Robert Indiana, whose “LOVE” sculpture — with the letter “O” slanted at an angle and with “LO” sitting atop “VE” — has been exhibited and reproduced around the world since he first designed the image for a Christmas card in 1964. Philadelphia’s Love Park, for example, is nicknamed after a LOVE sculpture that has been displayed in the park since the 1970s.
