A HOLOGRAPHER who claims he is a co-creator of two Jersey-commissioned images of the late Queen is suing the artist who claims sole authorship of the portraits.
Rob Munday is taking legal action against Chris Levine regarding two holographic portraits of Queen Elizabeth II.
Mr Munday claims he is a co-author of Equanimity and Lightness of Being, which were commissioned by Jersey Heritage to mark the Island’s 800-year allegiance to the crown.
The artworks were created from sittings with the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2003 and 2004 by Mr Levine and Mr Munday.
But Mr Munday alleges that Mr Levine “distorted what happened in order to present himself as single-handedly creating the portrait and as its sole creative author”.
The holographer described a “deliberate campaign of misrepresentation” in which Mr Levine acknowledged Mr Munday’s technical assistance as a collaborator rather than crediting him as a co-creator of the portrait.
Mr Munday also claims that the account of the creation of the holographic portrait outlined in Mr Levine’s book Inner Light is “misleading and factually inaccurate” in the way it “misrepresents and downplays” his role in the project.
He also alleges that he assigned his copyright to Jersey Heritage under the false belief that Mr Levine was going to do the same.
Mr Levine has not yet filed a defence to Mr Munday’s claims, but he told the The Guardian: “Mr Munday does not hold any copyright in Equanimity or Lightness of Being. Jersey Heritage Trust, who commissioned the work, have publicly confirmed that I was the sole commissioned artist.”
Mr Munday told the newspaper he decided to take legal action after it emerged last month that a separate legal dispute between Mr Levine and Jersey Heritage had been settled confidentially.
At the time, a joint statement from the artist and the heritage organisation described Mr Levine as the “sole artist” of Equanimity and named Mr Munday as a creative collaborator.
