TEHRAN – Filmmaker Tahmineh Milani has filed a lawsuit in a Tehran court against E1 Gallery over closing her painting exhibition early, the Persian service of ISNA reported on Monday.

Last Sunday, E1 Gallery in Tehran wrapped up Milani’s exhibition prematurely following an allegation of plagiarism from a painting by Russian-born, Israel-based illustrator Jenny Meilihove.  

A group of young artists accused Milani of plagiarism by copying from a painting by Meilihove for her first painting exhibition that ran only for three days.

The artists and critics attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition, holding copies of artworks by a number of prominent Iranian artists and asked the visitors to go the exhibitions displaying works by “real artists”.

The suit is also against those people who brought chaos to the exhibition, Milani’s attorney, Abdolmajid Vaziri, said.

Following the plagiarism allegation, in a post published on her Instagram, Milani wrote, “Friends, I noticed the similarity between my work and a work by Ms. Meilihove.”

“I'm so sorry and I will withdraw the painting from the showcase and compensate for the loss. The image of a postcard I had received in the past recorded on my unconscious and the result was the painting.”

She said that she would apologize to the artist and added that all the money raised by the exhibit will go to charity.

Photo: Filmmaker Tahmineh Milani (C) is seen with visitors to her painting exhibition at Tehran’s E1 Gallery on September 7, 2018. (Honaronline/Maryam Ramezanlu)
 
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