Judges Appear Leery of Reviving Copyright Suit Against Koons (1)

Artist Michael Hayden faced an uphill climb to convince the Second Circuit to revive as timely his claim that artist Jeffrey Koons used his sculpture in a 1990 exhibition during oral arguments Wednesday.

The three-judge panel pressed Hayden’s counsel on the notion that the artist had no reason to think any infringement had occurred until 2019. A lower court cited “media sensation and scandal” surrounding Koons’ art series “Made in Heaven” in Italy, where Hayden was living at the time. Three of the pieces used Hayden’s flat snake sculpture as a platform for portraying Koons and his then-wife Ilona Staller ...