Jeff Koons Stole Porn Star's Pedestal For Pinnacle Work: Lawsuit

NEW YORK CITY — The sculpture series that vaulted artist Jeff Koons into international stardom included stolen artwork created for an Italian politician and porn star, a new lawsuit contends.

Set designer Michael Hayden Thursday accused Koons of copying the snake pedestal in the celebrated "Made In Heaven" series from a piece designed for Ilona "La Cicciolina" Staller, an adult film actress-turned-Italian parliament member, federal court records show.

"The Infringing Works are purely commercial works whose explicit purpose was to increase Mr. Koons’s fame and notoriety," the lawsuit contends.

"There is no public benefit to permitting Mr. Koons’s unlicensed exploitation of the Hayden Work for Mr. Koons’s own monetary and career gain."

Patch did not receive an immediate response to a request for comment from Koons.

In the lawsuit, Hayden says he created the original pedestal — which depicts a serpent wrapped around a pedestal — in 1988 for Staller to perform upon in an upcoming film in Italy.

Hayden's inspiration was Staller's fondness for snakes, the set designer noted.

Koons arrived in Italy a year later hoping to bolster his own celebrity by depicting himself sleeping with the famous adult film star he'd later marry, the lawsuit contends.

Staller has made many sensational headlines over the years — she once offered sex to Saddam Hussein in exchange for the return of hostages — and formed her own political party to campaign for same-sex marriage and a minimum wage for Italian youth.

The lawsuit quotes an interview Koons gave in 2017, during which he said of his inspiration for the sculpture, "It'll be like I became another star."

"I treated everything as readymade," Koons added. "Used the same photographer she always worked with, used the same sets she always worked with."

The result was the "Made in Heaven" series.

"Set against a tempestuous backdrop atop a glistening boulder, a naked Koons clutches his costar’s ... lingerie-clad body while staring at the camera," the lawsuit states, "and, he seems to imagine, his legions of adoring fans."

"Made In Heaven" vaulted the "appropriation artist" into a career that has since inspired many copyright infringement suits, the suit contends.

Koons was fined $168,000 for plagiarism in France in 2017 and lost three copyright suits stemming from his 1980s series "Banality," according to reports.

Hayden's copyright suit, filed in Manhattan Criminal Court Thursday, demands financial damages and credit for his contribution to "Made in Heaven," court records show.

The lawsuit notes Hayden's life as an artist was one of contented success until he became aware of Koon's "Made In Heaven."

"It was only in April 2019 that Mr. Hayden discovered for the first time the massive infringement of his own intellectual property rights that had occurred decades earlier," the lawsuit states.

"[Before then] he continued his life happily unaware of Mr. Koons’s actions or the particulars of Mr. Koons’s oeuvre."