The Robert Indiana sculpture “LOVE” stands in John F. Kennedy Plaza, commonly known as Love Park, in Philadelphia, April 13, 2020. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
A jury has awarded $102.2 million in a lawsuit over artwork attributed to the late Robert Indiana, a longtime Maine resident who created the famous LOVE sculptures.
Legal battles over the authenticity of work created in the later part of Indiana’s life have dogged his legacy, said Bob Keyes, a former Press Herald arts reporter and author of a book about Indiana called “The Isolation Artist.” Keyes is also chair of the Maine Arts Commission.
He called the jury award and the resolution of the lawsuit, “the big one.”
“This allows collectors and the public at large a better sense of what was legitimate,” Keyes said. “It allows us to enjoy his art without this cloud of suspicion.”
Indiana’s LOVE sculptures can be seen in cities across the world, most famously Philadelphia, and are part of the artist’s vast catalog of paintings, prints, sculptures and approved reproductions that include a U.S. postage stamp, a Lego LOVE set and a line of GAP clothing.
In a lawsuit filed in New York just before Indiana’s death in 2018, the group that owns the rights to his work, the Morgan Art Foundation, sued one of the artist’s former business associates, Michael McKenzie, who, through the court proceedings, has been found to have created fraudulent works and violated copyright and trademark laws.
Some of the massive sum the jury awarded could find its way to Maine to support arts and artists under an organization Indiana set up before his death, though it’s unclear whether McKenzie will be able to pay the full amount, or if he will appeal.
Luke Nikas, an attorney for the Morgan Art Foundation, said now that the jury has decided, his firm’s attention will turn to uncovering the defendant’s accounts, property holdings and art sales.
“We will pursue this judgment over every single asset he has, and assets he’s transferred over the course of this litigation,” Nikas said. The attorney said he’s not aware of any reported art litigation jury verdict larger than this one.
Vinalhaven resident Chuck Clapham rides past Robert Indiana’s Vinalhaven home, the former Odd Fellows Hall named Star of Hope in May 2018. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)
THE CASE
Born in Indiana as Robert Clark, the artist got to know Maine in the 1950s as a student at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 1970 in New York, he created the original LOVE sculpture inspired by the Christian Science services he attended as a child.
He moved to Vinalhaven, an island more than an hour ferry ride from Rockland, in 1978 and lived there for four decades. He continued to create art with bold colors, shapes, lettering and numbers.
“Once he found that form, it became distinct,” said Keyes. “Almost everything he did was full of hidden meaning. He didn’t like being called a pop artist because he thought it diminished the work.”
In the late 1980s he met Simon Salama-Caro, a gallerist who was taken by Indiana’s work. In 1999 Indiana agreed to give copyright and trademark rights to Salama-Caro and his family’s Morgan Art Foundation, which would energize Indiana’s career and expand the market for his work.
Robert Indiana, left, greets Simon Salama-Caro at his 80th birthday party in 2008. (Photo by Jim Baker)
“The family has invested the last 30 years-plus of their lives to the art and legacy of Indiana,” said Nikas, Morgan Art’s attorney.
About a decade later, Indiana partnered with McKenzie, an art publisher he’d known in New York, on work to support Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Indiana would adapt his iconic LOVE statue to say HOPE.
But in its lawsuit, Morgan Art alleged that McKenzie overstepped the bounds of that arrangement, and that starting around 2013, Indiana’s close associates isolated him from the broader art world while McKenzie created works in his name. They had “sinister intentions to steal the rights back and profit,” Nikas said.
In court, McKenzie admitted he created certain artworks and said he was proud of them. McKenzie created them, “not to disrespect Robert Indiana or Morgan Art, but because he truly thinks they have no rights,” said his attorney, Nicole Brenecki.
But the admission showed McKenzie had no remorse, said Morgan Art’s attorney, Nikas. “I knew at that moment that the jury should not only hold him accountable, but our request for punitive damages had just been corroborated.”
McKenzie hindered his own case during the eight-year legal proceeding. He lied under oath about whether he had documents and artwork that were relevant to the case, Nikas said, and just before a court-ordered inspection of his property, McKenzie removed 2,500 works of art.
Judges sanctioned him by prohibiting him from showing certain evidence and calling certain witnesses in the trial, common forms of punishment in civil litigation. Before the jury considered the case, a judge ruled that McKenzie was liable for interfering in the business relationship between Indiana and the Morgan Art Foundation.
Artist Robert Indiana in one of his studios on Vinalhaven in 2002. (John Ewing/Staff Photographer)
Nikas said the jury’s verdict and $102.2 million award are justice. But McKenzie has the option to appeal the sanctions, the rulings and the amount of money. His lawyer said McKenzie hasn’t made a decision yet about his next steps.
“It’s a very serious decision for him because going through this appeal would be very expensive and take a lot of time and open up old wounds,” Brenecki said.
Alternatively, he could try to negotiate a smaller payout with the Morgan Art Foundation, though Nikas said emphatically that his clients would not agree to that. McKenzie can also consider declaring bankruptcy, which Brenecki said would halt efforts to collect money from him and could ultimately reduce the amount he has to pay.
WHAT IT MEANS TO MAINE
In 2016 Indiana had set up a Maine-based organization, Star of Hope, to manage his estate and benefit local arts and art education. It inherited a vast collection of Indiana’s work and gets royalties from Morgan Art. In 2024, the most recent year tax documents are available, Star of Hope had $50 million in assets and was paid $1.5 million by Morgan Art.
The co-chair of Star of Hope, Emily Lane, said the organization is reviewing the court decision and declined to comment on the case, but Nikas said the nonprofit could receive some of the money Morgan Art collects that’s considered lost profits since 2012.
“To the extent we can recover a portion of those lost profits, I expect a percentage of them would flow to Star of Hope,” Nikas said.
Kris Davidson, a member of the Star of Hope Foundation board, stands near temporary support structures in the home of the late Robert Indiana during a 2021 tour of the massive renovation project. (Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer)
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He also said Star of Hope and its mission to support Maine art could benefit because the case has created clarity in the market for Indiana’s work, which could increase its value.
“It’s disparaging of an artist’s legacy to attribute art the artist did not create — particularly lesser quality work — to the artist,” Nikas said.
Now it’s clearer which art was forged and which is authentic, and as the 10th anniversary of Indiana’s death approaches, his legacy will get more attention, Keyes said. Morgan Art is working to put more of Indiana’s work on display and make it available through licensing deals like the ones with Lego and GAP.
Before his death, Indiana had hoped that his home on Vinalhaven would become an arts space that was accessible to the public. The Star of Hope organization has run into significant problems trying to make that dream a reality.
In an update issued last year, Star of Hope said it had to raze two properties Indiana owned on the island because of their unsafe condition. Indiana’s former home, the Star of Hope Lodge, is one of the largest buildings on Vinalhaven and is right on the waterfront. During his life it was a “spectacular array” of sculpture and paintings, Keyes said. Since Indiana’s death, though, it has been propped up with millions of dollars in improvements and would need its entire back wall replaced in order to become usable again.
“We decided to pause further work on The Lodge until the board completes strategic planning and gets a better handle on the foundation’s financial assets,” Star of Hope’s leaders wrote.
