Artist feels his brand is being misused

Celebrated Faroese artist Tróndur Patursson finds it unsettling to see mass-produced versions of his glass bird mini sculptures being sold online.

The birds are listed on the Faroese auction marketplace ‘Rótikassin’ on Facebook at a starting price of DKK 7,000.

These birds are not the same artworks that have been on display in galleries in the Faroes and abroad; they are mass-produced ornaments created in a Danish glass workshop.

The owner of the workshop and Patursson have had a longstanding collaboration. Every year, the glass workshop makes glass items for a large Danish company, which sends them out as Christmas presents for its clients.

Inappropriate use of an artist’s brand

Patursson has previously designed bowls and vases for this purpose. Last year, the glass workshop offered the Faroese artist DKK 300,000 to design 900 glass birds.

Believing that the birds, which were created in the glass workshop, would be used as Christmas presents, Patursson says he was startled when he saw his designs being sold online as artworks with a starting price of DKK 7,000 each – a total minimum value of DKK 6.3 million for the 900 birds.

“These are not works of art. They were intended as ornaments, and I never consented to them being sold as art,” says Patursson.

“I must admit that I feel slightly betrayed. He is using my name and my brand for his own financial gain, and I find that highly inappropriate.”

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.