The Jersey Heritage Trust is suing the light artist Chris Levine and his company Sphere 9 over portraits it commissioned him to create of the late British monarch Queen Elizabeth II. The photographs were taken in 2003 and 2004 to celebrate the 800 years since Jersey, a self-governing dependency of the United Kingdom, pledged allegiance to the English crown. The charitable trust, which is supported by the states of Jersey, alleges that Levine is in breach of contract as well as copyright and claims the artist owes it money—both related to a settlement agreement made in 2015 and from sales of allegedly unlicensed copies of the portraits, which are said to be worth “multiple millions”, according to court papers.
Levine denies allegations of copyright infringement, describing the litigation in a counterclaim filed on 29 May as “pointless and wasteful”. The artist also disputes the scope of the works the trust has rights over, saying the charity knew of his “ongoing” creation and exhibition of versions of the portraits. He accepts, however, that he did not “always seek advance approval [or] provide advance notification”. According to Levine, the case is now heading to mediation.
Levine reportedly spent two years preparing for the commission, which was completed over two sittings at Buckingham Palace, in November 2003 and March 2004. Two holographic works were subsequently created: Equanimity, the first 3D lenticular portrait of the Queen, which was used in 2012 for a new £100 note issued in Jersey to mark the Diamond Jubilee; and Lightness of Being, which depicts the Queen with her eyes closed, resting between takes. In an interview with Wallpaper magazine from 2022, Levine describes how he came across the “outtake” some years later. [I was] blown away,” he says. “I immediately put a filter on it and the piece was made. It’s as if I channelled it.” The National Portrait Gallery in London acquired a copy in 2013.
Equanimity and Lightness of Being, along with “derivative versions” of the holographic images, are the subject of the legal case mounted by the Jersey Heritage Trust, which officially interacts with the UK royal family on behalf of the Jersey government and secured the initial sitting with Elizabeth II.
According to the 2015 settlement, Levine was granted permission to use the works subject to a licence, but the Jersey Heritage Trust says the artist ignored certain restrictions including notifying the trust in advance of the production of further works and failing to pay a royalty of 20% of net sales. Conversely, if the trust made copies of the works, or exploited the works in any other way, it would have to pay Levine 80% of proceeds. There was also an agreement for both parties to provide each other with annual audited statements detailing the sales of works, according to the trust’s complaint. Levine maintains he provided spreadsheets detailing sales to the trust, which, he says, also failed to notify him when it undertook certain licensing of the works.
According to the trust’s claim, Levine is in breach of the 2015 settlement, which says the artist owed the trust £300,000, payable in nine instalments. Court documents show that £100,000 of that amount is still outstanding. In addition, the trust claims, Levine has made “significant profits in the multiple millions from the exploitation of the works”, in particular Equanimity and Lightness of Being. According to Levine’s accounts cited by the trust, his profits from those works and their derivations have totalled more than £3.7m since 2015, and more than £1.2m in 2022 alone. The charity calculates that, as a result, it is owed at least £650,000 as of 10 November 2022. Levine disputes the claim that this sum was due in full by that date.
The trust estimates that Levine has sold at least 66 copies of Equanimity since 20 November 2017 with a sales value of at least £585,000, “without seeking, or receiving, the prior written permission” from the charity. Since that same date, Levine has sold “or otherwise exploited” 223 copies of Lightness of Being and other works, “with a sales value of at least £3m”, according to the trust’s complaint. The charity says it is “entitled to any unpaid licence fees” at 20% of the artist’s net profit.
The court papers show that Levine told the trust he was “presently unable” to pay the remaining £100,000 from the 2015 agreement “notwithstanding that he has in the past earned significant sums”. The trust say that he told them that this was partly because of debts. Levine says in the papers, meanwhile, that, between 1 February 2017 and 11 February 2018, he has made royalty payments totalling £107,165.
While copyright for the works has been assigned to the Jersey Heritage Trust as “security” for the 2015 settlement agreement, those rights are transferable to Levine once the outstanding sum has been paid. The artist’s defence argues that, under the settlement agreement, the trust has “waived its right to seek to bring a copyright infringement claim rather than a claim for licence fees”. Moreover, the court papers say, 80% of damages won in a copyright case would have to be transferred back to Levine upon payment of the outstanding £100,000.
The original agreement between the two parties was made in July 2003. According to Levine’s defence, the Jersey Heritage Trust only funded the first sitting with the Queen; the second sitting, “from which virtually all the published works derive”, was funded by Levine personally at a cost of £50,000. In February 2004, a second agreement was entered into. According to court filings, that agreement awarded Levine copyright to all works “arising out of or in relation to the [November 2003] sitting”. The artist, in the agreement, granted the trust an exclusive 70-year licence to use “one original holographic portrait and one copy of that holographic portrait” created during the 2003 sitting. The fee he was given to make that portrait, Equanimity, was £147,000.
Court papers say that Levine produced Lightness of Being several years later—and that it was first published in the December 2007 edition of Walrus magazine. The work “was derived from an image taken during the second sitting”, court papers say, and was created by Levine “on his own initiative and formed no part of the original commission” by the Jersey Heritage Trust. But the trust says works created from the two sittings should not be “treated any differently”. It adds: “Given […] that it is not uncommon for a portrait to require more than one sitting, it is unlikely that Her Late Majesty would have considered the second sitting to be meaningfully distinguished from the first sitting.” The 2015 agreement later created provided terms covering both Equanimity and Lightness of Being.
Exhibition fees
In his counterclaim, Levine introduces another point of contention. According to the court papers, in September 2011 the artist was approached by Louise Downie, who was then a curator at the Jersey Heritage Trust, to mount an exhibition at Mont Orgueil Castle in Jersey. The show reportedly included Equanimity and Lightness of Being and, according to Levine, he was also asked to “produce a number of new works for the exhibition”. However the trust, he says, “had only a modest budget” to put it all together.
Mont Orgueil Castle in Jersey, where the 2012 exhibition The Queen was held
Photo: Lawrence
The trust paid for the production of 12 new works. The court papers say that manufacture of all of them cost £24,943 (with total costs including fees, installation, marketing and launch budgeted at £44,861) and Levine was paid a fee of around £1,500. In his counterclaim, the artist says this “was manifestly not a proper or commercial fee”, particularly given that he had spent several weeks helping to design the exhibition, overseeing the production of the new works and supervising their installation. Instead, the artist claims the low fee reflected his belief that he was to gain ownership of the works once the exhibition closed.
The exhibition opened in May 2012 and was so successful, Levine’s counterclaim says, the Jersey Heritage Trust wished to extend the six-month run, to which Levine did not object, “although no terms for the [extended] loan were specifically agreed at that time”.
The trust, which is still in possession of the exhibition works, disagrees that they belong to Levine. “…Levine does not, and never has, owned the physical Mont Orgueil works,” the trust says in a response to Levine’s counterclaim. “Whilst he was involved in their conception, [the Jersey Heritage Trust] paid for their physical creation, and they were created by [the London-based manufacturer] Haberdasherylondon Limited.” The trust “duly paid the final balance of the agreed price on 21 September 2012, and ownership of the Mont Orgeuil works was accordingly transferred to [it]”. The charity also maintains that “there is no basis for inferring a loan by… Levine, or any other party”.
However, the artist claims that, as per the conditions of the 2015 settlement agreement, he is now entitled to 80% of entrance fees to the Jersey exhibition. The trust counters that the exhibition “was part of a charitable endeavour” and therefore no payment is required. Furthermore, it says, any profits made from viewing Levine’s work would have to be separated out from the rest of the castle’s attractions. “They would be a very small proportion of the overall ticket price,” the trust says.
Chris Levine said in a statement: “I was commissioned to make art and I successfully delivered the work in 2004. I was not commissioned to create Lightness of Being or anything else, only the Equanimity that hangs in Mont Orgeuil Castle." He added: "I’m pleased a mediation date has been set and hope that there’s a fair deal on the table for all parties. This has been going on for years and I hope we can soon move on. It will always be a huge honour to have created this historic work with the late Monarch—with whom I felt a lot of affection.”
The Jersey Heritage Trust did not respond to a request for comment.
UPDATE 2 August: This article was updated with a comment from Chris Levine.