The artist of world-famous holographic Queen Elizabeth II portraits which hang in Gorey Castle has found himself at the centre of a fresh legal row – just one month after a separate case involving Jersey Heritage was settled confidentially.
Chris Levine, who claims sole authorship of the portraits of the late Queen, is being sued by holographer Rob Munday in a High Court dispute.
Mr Munday claims he is a co-author of the two 2004 portraits, which were created using holography technology.
The works, entitled Equanimity and Lightness of Being, were commissioned by Jersey Heritage to mark the island’s 800-year allegiance to the crown.
They were created from sittings with the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2003 and 2004 by Mr Levine and Mr Munday.
But Mr Munday alleges that Mr Levine “distorted what happened in order to present himself as single-handedly creating the portrait and as its sole creative author”.
The holographer described a “deliberate campaign of misrepresentation” in which Mr Levine acknowledged Mr Munday’s technical assistance as a collaborator rather than crediting him as a co-creator of the portrait.
Mr Munday also claims that the account of the creation of the holographic portrait outlined in Mr Levine’s book Inner Light is “misleading and factually inaccurate” in the way it “misrepresents and downplays” his role in the project.
Mr Munday alleges that he assigned his copyright to Jersey Heritage under the false belief that Mr Levine was going to do the same.
Mr Levine has not yet filed a defence to Mr Munday’s claims, but he told the The Guardian: “Mr Munday does not hold any copyright in Equanimity or Lightness of Being. Jersey Heritage Trust, who commissioned the work, have publicly confirmed that I was the sole commissioned artist.”
Mr Munday said he decided to take legal action after it emerged last month that a legal dispute between Mr Levine and Jersey Heritage had been settled confidentially.
At the time, a joint statement from the artist and the heritage organisation described Mr Levine as the “sole artist” of Equanimity and named Mr Munday as a creative collaborator.
It said: “The parties acknowledge that Chris Levine was the sole artist commissioned by The Jersey Heritage Trust to create the portrait and both parties remain incredibly proud of the creative collaboration between artist Chris Levine, holographer Robert Munday of UK Company Spatial Imaging, Jeffrey Robb also of UK Company Spatial Imaging and Dr John Perry (USA) which resulted in the ground-breaking and iconic portrait of Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, titled Equanimity.”
Following the settlement, Mr Levine also posted an individual statement on Instagram in a now-deleted post, which said: “Truth prevailed. I was the sole artist commissioned and am now legally recognised as the sole author of the work.”
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INSIGHT: Jersey Heritage in legal row with artist over “exploitation” of Queen portraits
The historic organisation commissioned unique holograph artwork from light artist Chris Levine in 2003 to celebrate 800 years since Jersey pledged allegiance to the Crown in 1204. Equanimity and Lightness of Being, along with “derivative versions” of the holographic images, are now the subject of a legal case which Jersey Heritage kickstarted earlier this year.…
