The French fashion company Louis Vuitton allegedly threatened to destroy the career of the Danish artist Nadia Plesner if she did not stop using Louis Vuitton products in her works of art. In a book entitled Simple Living, published in Denmark in May, Plesner chronicles her three-year legal battle with the luxury goods company. “If you do not stop your campaign immediately, your artistic career will end here. You will never exhibit in a single gallery or museum in your life,” a lawyer for the company allegedly told Plesner. In 2007, the artist designed a T-shirt illustrated with an emaciated African child carrying a chihuahua and a Louis Vuitton handbag, which was intended to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. She sold the garments on her website to raise funds for Sudan. Louis Vuitton sued her for copyright infringement and a French court ordered her to stop selling the T-shirts. In 2011, Plesner used a Louis Vuitton handbag in another work and was again sued successfully. She countersued for the right to show her work and won her case. Louis Vuitton declined to comment.
