April 1, 2013 – AP. Lawyers representing the 631 million known descendants of the painters of the famous Lascaux Cave paintings announced today a far-reaching plan to recover royalties from the more than 70 years of modern-era unlicensed reproduction of their ancestors’ work.
Said François Fraisant-Pître, who still lives in the area where his family painted aurochs and other fauna later driven extinct by more recent members of his family, “My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather understood the investment he was making for us, and it is to honor his memory that we now seek payment of the royalties that he rightfully expected to go to our benefit.”
The legal team emphasized that because the paintings were at least 17,000 years old, they could not be sure how many people had made copies in the intervening millennia, and that out of concern not to make any overly broad claims, they were only seeking payment for photographic and other reproductions dating from after the caves’ modern discovery in 1940. “It is possible, of course, that others have entered the caves at various points in history and made use of this art,” said lead attorney Belinda Featherstonehaugh, herself a Lascaux descendant along with most of the population of the British Isles. “Of course, if we had any way to identify those infringers with certainty, we would attempt to recover royalties from their descendants today; however, without any reliable way to know who was there, we felt it best to err on the side of caution and discretion.”
Featherstonehaugh added that the families would be seeking additional compensatory damages from the estate of Georgia O’Keeffe, whose paintings of deer skulls and antlers from the American Southwest were “clearly derivative, and were made entirely without permission,” in the lawyer’s words.
QuestionCopyright.org Executive Director Karl Fogel, however, criticized the recently announced enforcement effort, saying “This just shows how little has changed in seventeen thousand years. The descendants may indeed have a valid legal claim, especially with the retroactive copyright term extensions of 7,500 B.C. and again in 600 A.D., plus the dropping of registration requirements at the start of the Holocene interglacial period. But the suppressive effect this will have on the entire history of Western art is totally unjustifiable.”
“These lawyers and their clients,” Fogel went on to add “are just complete Neanderthals. They can’t see, or won’t acknowledge, how the world has changed, how the economics of distribution have been completely upended by the arrival of the Internet. They’re still stuck in the old model.”