Louis Vuitton tends to be the sue-er rather than the sue-ee, but the tables have been turned on the handbag giant. The fashion label is being sued by gourmet butter mogul Clint Arthur for fraud.
The case came about when Louis Vuitton set up a boutique outlet inside Takeshi Murakami’s exhibit at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007. The store sold handbags for around $1000 and prints for between $6000 and $10, 000.
Mr. Arthur picked up one the prints, took it home, and discovered it was made from the very same materials as the purses. In essence, that means he could have saved thousands by simply hacking up a handbag and stringing it up on a frame himself!
One of Louis Vuitton’s key arguments is that Mr. Arthur should have noticed his print was placed next to purses which looked just like it and connected the dots.
Mr. Arthur has shot back “It’s not my responsibility to inspect their handbags. I’m only interested in collecting fine art.“
Something tells me this case is going to close without Mr. Arthur seeing a cent. As a man in the gourmet butter industry, surely he knows a thing or two about markups. Whether Mr. Arthur agrees with the materials and methods, there’s no denying that Louis Vuitton’s prints are still art. And while they are art, can the practice really be counted as fraud? It seems to me that Mr. Arthur should be more furious at himself for laying his money down.
[Source: NBC Los Angeles]
[Image Source: AchimH/Flickr]
