Although the third season of Money Heist is currently being filmed, the series is having problems because the Dalí Foundation isn’t happy with the production company, since the show uses a mask with the face of the famous painter. The Spanish newspaper El País reported that the heirs to the painter Salvador Dalí, or the Gaya-Salvador Dalí Foundation to be more exact, didn’t give the show permission to use the artist’s face.
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A foundation to defend their cultural heritage
The Gaya-Salvador Dalí Foundation was created in 1983 to watch over the heritage and the cultural heritage rights. According to them, the production company behind Money Heist didn’t ask the foundation for their permission to use Dalí’s face for the bank robbers’ masks. As a result, they are holding the series responsible, claiming that it’s not just a question of money, but a regularisation of rights.
‘Any person wishing to exercise or exploit any of these rights must have the prior authorisation of the foundation. And if the foundation is aware that these rights have been violated, an attempt is made to redirect the situation, demanding that unauthorised uses be regularised,’ as was stated in the Spanish newspaper.
The response from production
The series obviously tried to defend themselves, and Vancouver Media, one of the show’s production companies explained to El País that the foundation never asked them to regulate the use of the mask.
‘The mask is a design that resembles Salvador Dalí, but a moustache can be worn by anyone, even if Dalí popularised it,’ they claimed. They also insisted that the series has made the painter more popular throughout the world.
What’s more, Atresmedia, the broadcasting group that owns Money Heist, claimed that using this representation of Dalí was a ‘decision made by the creators backed by the art team and the producer,’ and ‘an artisan was commissioned to make a caricature for the series and asked if we had to ask for permission. However, our legal team said that this wasn’t necessary because it was a caricature.’
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