London-based artist Anouska Samms has accused the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute of exhibiting a dress that she claims is a counterfeit of her work in the ongoing "Costume Art" exhibition. The dress, titled Corpus Nervina 0.0, is credited solely to New York-based Israeli designer Yoav Hadari, but Samms alleges it closely resembles an earlier Nervina hair dress she co-developed with Hadari during their 2023 residency at the Lee Alexander McQueen Sarabande Foundation. Samms discovered the display via a social media post and has since spoken out, noting that a contract from their collaboration designated her as the sole owner of the intellectual property of the fabric. The Met has requested that the two parties resolve their dispute before the museum takes further action.
This dispute matters because it highlights ongoing tensions around intellectual property, credit, and collaboration in the fashion and art worlds, particularly when institutions like the Met acquire and exhibit works with contested authorship. The case raises questions about how museums verify provenance and attribution, especially when works involve collaborative development and proprietary materials like Samms's hair-based textile. The outcome could set a precedent for how institutions handle similar claims and how artists protect their contributions in high-profile exhibitions.