Nfts
Judge rules MetaBirkin NFTs cannot be exhibited at Stockholm museum
A U.S. judge in the Southern District of New York rejected a request to exhibit MetaBirkins at a Stockholm museum, citing a lack of detail on how the exhibit would depict NFT to the public.
Last February, Hermès won a lawsuit against Mason Rothschild (aka Sonny Estival) regarding Rothschild’s “MetaBirkins” NFT collection, 3D renderings of the company’s iconic Birkin bag covered in fur in a variety of patterns.
A jury ruled that Rothschild’s NFTs failed a test that would allow them to be considered art. The luxury handbag company was to be awarded $133,000 in damages. Hermes too requested a permanent injunction against Rothschild, which was granted in June.
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The documents filed March 13 detail how Rothschild asked whether the injunction would prohibit him from allowing the Spritmuseum to exhibit the MetaBirkins. The works had to appear on a screen in a Andy Warhol exhibition and his practice of Business Art.
According to Rothschild, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Spirits contacted him just before Christmas last year about displaying the MetaBirkins on a screen, “just like the images are available on the Internet.”
Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled that, based on the evidence, “the Court cannot conclude” that the MetaBirkins would avoid the terms of the injunction because Rothschild did not provide details of the authorizations he would grant to the Spritmuseum for things like promoting the show or related merchandise. There was also no contract or document describing the agreement Rothschild had with the museum or the extent of permissions granted to the Stockholm institution.
The court documents also contain sworn testimony from Spritmuseum curator Mia Sundberg and Blake Gopnika New York-based critic hired to curate Warhol’s show, only raised more concerns about Rothschild’s claim.
Sundberg said the museum has not yet decided whether it will discuss the Hermes trial in the exhibition text. Although the text would be written “in an open way,” she said, “I would not tell my audience that this is an artist who is an impostor. This would not be a way to express myself in a text in an exhibition.
Gopnik was retained by Rothschild as an expert witness during the trial, but the court excluded his testimony, “finding that it did not comply at all with the requirements of the Federal Rule of Evidence.” Shortly after last February’s ruling, Gopnik also wrote an article for the Washington Post titled “An ill-advised jury failed to see Mason Rothschild’s MetaBirkins art“.
The judge withheld two lines from Gopnik’s editorial that indicated he was “openly hostile” to last year’s jury verdict: “I saw no real difference between Rothschild and the many artists, good and bad, who have made art about the commerce of our culture, often including branded products” and “I was wrong about that jury, but I hope an appeals court realizes that the jury got it wrong about Rothschild’s art. »
Following their testimony, the judge expressed “deep concerns” that allowing Rothschild to provide authorization to the Spritmuseum would be “likely to lead the public to believe that “MetaBirkins” NFTs or associated merchandise are in [some] manner associated or linked to Hermes and/or its brand and/or its trade dress “Birkin”.
The Spritmuseum and Sundberg did not respond to press inquiries from ARTnews.
News of the judge’s decision was first reported by Bloomberg Law.