Thursday, May 17, 2012

Love child

Try getting your head around this. An art collector living in Monaco buys a version of the famous Robert Indiana sculpture LOVE only this one says PREM which is (as you all probably know) the Hindi word for love. 

The collector had purchased the work for $1.5 million only to have the artist declare in public that it was nothing to do with him and that he disowned it. So guess what? The Monaco man is suing the Love guy. 

Dig a little and you find that Indiana has been involved in all sorts of love action, including doubled-up versions of the English text as well as versions in Italian and Hebrew. According to Indiana’s ex business partner John Gilbert, the Hindi language work was authorized by Indiana and payments were made so into court they all go with auctions of the PREM work at Christies in Dubai and Sotheby’s in Milan cancelled. Love sculptures. Gotta love ‘em. Other 

OTN stories on Robert Indiana’s Love sculpture: