After a very long court hearing yesterday, a verdict was reached in the case between Sct. Peders Church in Næstved and visual artist Thomas Kluge.
The parish council in St. In 2018, Peders Church in Næstved chose visual artist Thomas Kluge to paint two paintings on the doors of the church's recreated 'swallow's nest organ', which was commissioned in 2016. But although Kluge won the task in competition with several other artists, there were improvements to the work that was handed over to the church in 2021, still possible according to the parish council, which has provided the paintings with gold edging.
Thomas Kluge naturally thought that. He gave power of attorney to the Association of Visual Artists, which has wanted to obtain a bailiff's ban so that the painted doors cannot be shown to the public in St. Peter's Church:
“An absolutely incredible case. It is not commonplace in our world that an entire parish council apparently chooses to take copyright seriously and commit suicide. It is of course completely unheard of and probably punishable," said head of the secretariat Klaus Pedersen from the Visual Artists' Association in May about the background to the desire for the ban on bailiffs.
Yesterday the case came before the court in Næstved, which found that it was a breach of Thomas Kluge's artistic copyright that the parish council applied gold edges to the artwork, and therefore Thomas Kluge and the Norwegian Artists' Association agreed that the painted doors cannot be displayed for so long , they are provided with gold edges.
Thomas Kluge was understandably very happy about that.
“I have been right in all the points that I made. Now I'm excited to see how we move forward with the case. That gold has to come off again - but I think it will too," he said after the decision.
The ban applies from today, and the parish council in Sct. Peders Kirke has 14 days to appeal the case.
Photo: Thomas Kluge (before the painted doors were equipped with gold trim)