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The case of a much talked about work of art entitled ‘Take the money and run’ is brought back to life in the legal system. The new case is due to the fact that the artist Jens Haaning has sued the image agency Ritzau Scanpix with a demand for payment of DKK 687,000 plus interest.
The background is that a press photographer from Ritzau Scanpix visited the exhibition ‘Work it out’ at the museum Kunsten in Aalborg in autumn 2021. He took photos of two picture frames, which were empty. They were part of Jens Haaning’s work ‘Take the money and run’, which was part of the exhibition. But when Ritzau then sold the photos to the agency’s media clients, the artist’s copyright was violated, the lawsuit alleges.
The district court has already once heard lawyers give long presentations about the work, but it happened in connection with a dispute between Kunsten i Aalborg and Jens Haaning. Here, in September last year, the museum agreed that Haaning should pay almost half a million kroner back to the museum after the museum had lent him the money.
The dispute died this spring. A settlement was reached when Den Obelske Familiefond stepped in with money and ensured that the museum acquired the work. In the original version of ‘Take the money and run’ there was cash in each of the two picture frames. In one, an average annual income in Denmark and an Austrian annual income in the other.
However, the notes were gone when Kunsten i Aalborg wanted to include the work in the exhibition. Therefore, the museum decided to lend Jens Haaning the half million. But when the picture frames arrived at the museum, there were no banknotes – and thus an event was created that received media coverage around the world.
To the medium Føljeton, the concept artist told what it was that he had created:
“The work is that I have taken their money, and the work is so materialized by the fact that there are two empty frames”.
The Academy Council has declared in a statement that Haaning has taken an action with the work that “provokes a position to be taken on the artists’ working life and financially vulnerable situation on the art scene”.
Ritzau: A matter of principle
In the new dispute, however, Ritzau denies having reproduced a protected work with photos of the empty frames. One of the arguments is that the all-important part of the work consists in the fact that the borrowed money was not returned. In addition, Ritzau’s managing director and editor-in-chief refers to the rights of the press:
“The case is quite fundamental, because it could potentially have an extensive influence on what the press must bring. And thus we are also about to touch freedom of expression. That’s why we definitely intend to follow the case all the way through, even if it requires us to go through several courts”, says Jacob Kwon.
In the summons, Haaning’s lawyer refers to the fact that the district court ruled in the first case that ‘Take the money and run’ enjoys protection as a work of art.
And by the way, the frames were not completely empty. There were ‘stickers, a jumble of tape residue and torn paper’, which testified that banknotes had previously been hanging, the lawyer emphasizes.
It is not known when the district court will take a decision.
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Source: politiken.dk
