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The sculptor who created the famous "Charging Bull" statue downtown has filed a lawsuit against Random House for putting a photo of the piece on the cover of A Colossal Failure of Common Sense, a new book about Lehman Brothers' collapse. Arturo Di Modica, the sculptor responsible for the work, says Random House didn't have his permission to use a picture. The only problem? Di Modica never had permission to put the statue there in the first place:

The nearly 7,000-pound sculpture was placed unannounced in front of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989 and was soon moved to Bowling Green in lower Manhattan, where it has been on 'temporary' display for 17 years.

Let this be a lesson to you, aspiring artists. Instead of spending all your time kissing gallerists' asses, desperately hoping one of them will finally relent and agree to showcase your work, consider going guerrilla. Pick a street corner, install your work and hope for the best. Your piece might just become an icon if you're lucky.

A lot of bull [Moby Lives]
Artist Sues Random House Over Use Of Wall St Bull Image [Dow Jones]
A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers [Random House]