Nude Breach

Last week, LVMH won 80,000 euros in damages for the unauthorized close-up of Louis Vuitton fabric in a Britney Spears video. Now the luxury goods conglomerate is quietly apologizing for its own intellectual property violation, which stems from the use of a nude alphabet created for Vuitton by artist Vanessa Beecroft (she of the haunting high fashion tableaux vivants). Turns out Dutch graphic designer and artist Anthon Beeke thought of assembling naked women into letters about 40 years before Beecroft did.