 | For sheer gumption, Levine's only rival is Richard Prince, who in 1983 took a photograph of a photograph of a naked 10-year-old Brooke Shields, originally shot for a never-published book by a commercial photographer named Garry Gross. Arguing that a change of context changed the image, Prince displayed his replica by itself in a gallery in the Lower East Side, and re-titled it Spiritual America. Gross couldn't afford to litigate and accepted a $2,000 payoff. Spiritual America wound up at the Whitney Museum, and one copy—Prince made 10—has sold at auction for $372,500. Gross, meanwhile, was thrown off eBay when he tried to sell posters of his original. |  |
Richard Prince, Spiritual America, 1983 (a photograph by Gary Gross by Richard Prince). Image from www.richardprinceart.com. |
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