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Sheldon Gitis's avatar

Thanks for the Adolph Menzel lead. Hate to be a downer, but after an image search, I discovered there’s a whole slew of scumballs selling posters/canvas prints of his paintings in the $25-$100 range. I can imagine some "artistic" real estate agent scooping up one of the framed bargains to hang in a FOR SALE suburban McMansion. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m assuming the “wall art” sellers are paying no fees to the owner of the original painting.

“Explore more than 406,000 hi-res images of public-domain works from the The Met collection, all of which can be downloaded, shared, and remixed without restriction.”

https://www.metmuseum.org/policies/image-resources

Speaking of “self”, if you haven’t yet seen it, the 2002 British TV series The Century of Self is interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jymMjNc0igI

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Mason Akers's avatar

I am sure you are right; they make these prints without any remuneration. As you might expect, the legal ownership of image rights is a pretty convoluted. I will say, a lot of these poster merchants are probably running afoul of at least some copyright law. Not everything they reproduce is public domain. What I understand is that it isn't worth the hassle to pursue any legal action.

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Peter Cerf's avatar

My Sunday Morning, "Eye Opener"... Thank you.

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Mason Akers's avatar

Thank You!

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