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Artist Is Making $90K On People's Instagram Posts Without Them Knowing

by Adam Pliskin

Richard Prince, a painter and photographer, is making a lot of money from other people's Instagram photos.

This month, Prince participated in the Frieze Art Fair in New York City.

His works weren't paintings or original pieces, however, they were just screenshots Prince blew up.

Prince's exhibit for the show, "New Portraits," featured photos of people taken directly from their Instagram accounts.

He also removed the captions and added some of his own comments on the photos.

But for all intents and purposes, Prince repurposed Instagram photos taken by these people, and he did it without their consent.

The crazy part is most of these works already sold for $90,000 a piece.

This, of course, begs the question: Is this legal?

Well, Prince has done stuff like this since the 1970s. Since then, he's faced varying degrees of legal scrutiny. Yet, in most cases, he was exonerated.

In this case, Prince is seemingly within his rights as Instagram photos don't technically belong to the original poster; they are effectively public domain.

So while it seems like a rather shady practice, it's hard to say what is and what isn't of artistic merit. And Richard Prince is walking that fine line all the way to the bank.

Doe Deere, CEO of makeup company Lime Crime, posted a response on Instagram after finding out her photo was used in the show.

Below is the original photo posted to Deere's Instagram.

Citations: A reminder that your Instagram photos arenu2019t really yours (Washington Post)