Damian demands compensation to a 16-year-old!

Damian Hirst makes (again) the headlines. Now because he is threatening a 16-year-old artist with legal action over the use of his work "For the Love of God" in a collage!!!

Here is the story (and I especially like the last part):

LONDON—Brit art provocateur Damien Hirst has demanded payment from a 16-year-old artist who appropriated images of his notorious £50 million ($73.9 million) diamond-encrusted skull, reports the Guardian via Private Eye magazine.

Working under the moniker Cartrain, the student produces collages and stencil designs featuring cultural icons such as Mickey Mouse, Clint Eastwood, the Queen of England, and George Bush, and sells them on the online gallery 100artworks.com for £65 apiece. He's also depicted Hirst's skull, titled For the Love of God, topping other photographic figures, or, in one work, sitting alongside some carrots in a shopping basket.

"I made a few collages and my gallery put them up for sale online," Cartrain said. "After two weeks, the gallery received an email from DACS [the Design and Artists Copyright Society] stating I had infringed Damien Hirst's copyright on the title of the work [For the Love of God] and that I was to forfeit £200 in fees and the artworks. I handed over the artworks to DACS on the advice of my gallery." A representative of DACS told Cartrain that Hirst had "personally ordered action on the matter."

According to the Guardian, Hirst demanded that Cartrain not only remove the works from sale but also "deliver up" the originals and the profits he's made, or face legal action.

The newspaper also reports that some have found the action ironic given the questioned provenance of For the Love of God, which artist John LeKay, a former friend of Hirst, says is a copy of work he's been doing since 1993. He uses less expensive crystals in his piece, which he has been quoted as saying "looks as if it is covered in diamonds."

(Artinfo)