In more recent Cattelanesque news:
Former lover accuses Cattelan of stealing her ideas The man recently named as the world's most influential artist has been accused of stealing ideas from a former lover, herself an internationally renowned figure in the art world.
Maurizio Cattelan is Italy's most successful contemporary artist. In 2004 after his sculpture of a hanging horse, The Ballad of Trotsky, was auctioned for $1.2m (now £686,000), ArtReview magazine put him at number four on a list of the art world's VIPs. It was the highest ranking for any artist.
An inveterate prankster, Cattelan once persuaded a curator to dress up for the sake of art in a pink bunny suit. But the latest controversy was ignited in an interview published last month by the Italian edition of Vanity Fair.
The Genoa-born artist Vanessa Beecroft - best known for her disturbing installations of living, almost nude, models - said she had had an affair with Cattelan before either became famous and that she was the source for many of his ideas.
"It was in 1990," she said. "I worked in a gallery in Milan. All I really did was open and close the door. One day he turned up. I didn't know who he was and he tried to persuade me to steal the works in the gallery.
"Later he introduced himself and we saw each other for a period. I've always been infatuated with him. He gave me very beautiful presents, objects taken from the rubbish."
Asked how the affair ended, Beecroft was quoted as replying: "It ended with there being a lot of rivalry between us. Every time that I tell him something, he turns it into reality."
Read onOh, come on, shut up already, Vanessa. Your installations bore me to death.
