(via Towleroad) The famous kiss between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German counterpart Erich Honecker painted on the Berlin Wall has been destroyed. I’m sad, and the artist, Dmitri Vrubel, isn’t too happy either:
But Dmitri Vrubel, who never agreed to his artwork being destroyed, is not happy with this explanation. “I’ve got no problem with a restoration,” he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “But now it will be a new picture. I can’t simply repeat my first painting.”
The Russian painter first heard about the renovation from a newspaper report. After contacting officials in Berlin he was sent an agreement, entitling him to expenses of €3,000 euros. “But why €3,000 euros? Why not 30,000 or 300?” asked Vrubel, who has seen his image put to commercial use adorning mugs, postcards and plates in Berlin. “It is being sold, but I have never seen a cent of the profits.”
Alavi of the artists initiative confirms that problems persist today with the marketing of the East Side Gallery. “Under German law, art that is created in a public space does not enjoy copyright protection. But he says his group may go to court in order to raise public awareness of that problem.
