Crossroads Roundup: Disney Sues Midjourney, the Venus of Kolobrzeg, and French Museums to Levy Tourist "Tariff"
This month's news in art, archaeology, culture, and more.
A major lawsuit in the ongoing controversy over AI “art”:
This month, Walt Disney Co. and NBC Universal have filed a joint copyright infringement lawsuit against Midjourney, an image generator that uses artificial intelligence. Midjourney, like ChatGPT (owned by OpenAI) and other AI platforms, trains its models on copyrighted images and text, then allows users to generate images whose styles are often copied from the work of living artists. Last year, Midjourney reported $300 million in revenue.
In their lawsuit, Disney and NBC state that Midjourney blatantly misappropriated the use of copyrighted images, including from major franchises such as Star Wars and Marvel: “Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism.” In a statement to the New York Times, Disney’s general counsel Horacio Gutierrez added, “We are bullish on the promise of A.I. technology and optimistic about how it can be used responsibly as a tool to further human creativity. But piracy is piracy, and the fact that it’s done by an A.I. company does not make it any less infringing.”
It’s fascinating to me how copyright laws seem to have gone out the window in the face of AI, as if Silicon Valley has a fundamental right to pillage. One recent scandal involving ChatGPT comes to mind: the viral image of a couple made in “Studio Ghibli style,” which prompted a slew of images that copy the famous Japanese animation studio’s art. Other major lawsuits include a case that the New York Times brought against OpenAI for using copyrighted articles to train its models without the paper’s permission, and just last week, a large group of authors sued Microsoft for training its AI models on their books. These cases have profound implications for the future of American copyright law, in a country that already does so little to protect its citizens against the rampages of large companies. I will be very curious to see how these lawsuits turn out.
The Venus of Kolobrzeg and other archaeological discoveries:
Six thousand years ago, agricultural settlers along the Baltic coast of Poland created a small figurine out of limestone. That figurine was found by a farmer near the city of Kolobrzeg in 2022, and after careful examination by archaeologists, it has been confirmed to be a Neolithic fertility figurine—the first discovery of its kind in Poland.
The exaggerated female figurine may remind you of the Paleolithic Venus of Willendorf, created 30,000 years ago and found near the village of Willendorf, Austria. (It now resides in the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna.) This more recent Neolithic figurine, likely also of a fertility goddess, has therefore been dubbed the Venus of Kolobrzeg.
A few other archaeological discoveries that might interest you:
Archaeologists have found 75 ancient tombs in eastern China, some dating to the Han Dynasty.
The remains of an ancient Egyptian city have been unearthed along the Nile Delta.
Archaeologists discovered the remains of a Gallo-Roman settlement near the city of Alès, France.
As European cities struggle with the impacts of overtourism, some French museums are implementing higher rates for non-EU residents. But the politics are complicated.
Starting in January 2026, prominent French museums including the Louvre and Versailles will increase prices for tourists who reside outside the European Union in what has been dubbed a “differential tariff.” Non-EU visitors will now pay €30 (about $35), up from €22 (about $25).
The institutions in question are in dire need of renovations—the Louvre, for example, requires repairs over the next fifteen years that will cost about €400 million. Other aging icons, from Versailles to the Château de Chambord, also need more funds to restore centuries-old structures. As European countries face sweeping protests on the negative impacts of overtourism (in particular, the spread of short-term rentals that make housing unaffordable for residents), it seems that these extra funds could provide a necessary lifeline for these museums. I should also point out that some American museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago, offer reduced rates for locals—so, this won’t come as a shock to American visitors.
However, the politics grow messy when one considers that many non-European works in Western museums were acquired (or in many cases, outright stolen) by imperial powers. One curator from the Louvre shared this anonymous statement with Le Monde: “Think about what this symbolizes. Can you imagine charging an Iraqi more than a Belgian to see the Code of Hammurabi, which comes from Iraq? Charging Africans extra so they can view, at the Pavillon des Sessions, objects that their countries might one day ask to have restituted?”
More museums around France are expected to adopt this pricing model in 2027, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes more common throughout the EU.
A Rodin in the the living room…
For many years, the sculpture above sat in a family home in central France. The owners displayed it on top of their piano, next to family photographs; they assumed it was a copy of a work by Auguste Rodin. When the piece came to the attention of Aymeric Rouillac of Rouillac Auctioneers, he decided to investigate for himself.
The organization Comité Rodin confirmed its legitimacy. The sculpture had not been seen in 120 years: just eleven inches high, The Despair was part of a 200-piece series created by Rodin called The Gates of Hell. Though Rodin bronzes are more frequently available at auctions, it is much rarer to find a marble work for sale. This month, The Despair sold for $1 million.
Another exciting find was the above painting, which sold for only $506 at auction in 2024. After some restoration work and verification, the painting was revealed to be an early work by the British Romantic artist J.M.W. Turner. The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St. Vincent’s Rock, Bristol (1792) will head to auction on July 2nd, where it is expected to sell for $270,000 to $400,000.
“Stop Calling Characters Unlikeable. Use These Words Instead.”
In each edition of the Roundup, I share the work of another Substack publication that caught my eye. Many of my readers are familiar with The Novel Tea—a literary podcast and newsletter. Co-host
published a wonderful article this past week on the inadequacies of labeling fictional characters as “unlikeable”:There is a somewhat justified argument that this word is mostly used to describe female characters, and the idea of women being ‘likeable’ is a sexist construct that we don’t ascribe to men in the same way. I do agree with this, on some level — but this argument still doesn’t get to the heart of the problem.
It has never occurred to me to call a book character ‘likeable.’ This is not a colleague I must work with on a project three times a week, where ‘likeability’ comes into play; it is a fictional character. If I only read books with ‘likeable’ characters (which, what does that even mean??), I’d be limiting my reading experience to characters and worlds very similar to mine —and that isn’t why I read.
I read to get inside people’s minds. Every type of person that exists in this world — I want to know about all of them.
At its core, the word ‘unlikeable’ is terrible because it is too generic, and therefore holds no meaning. What didn’t you like about them? And are you talking about them as if they were a real person that you’d interact with, or as a character in their own world?
I really loved the insights that Shruti shared in her essay, and I’d highly encourage checking out the entire piece here.
And finally, the summer of Cézanne:
Festivities kicked off in Aix-en-Provence over the weekend to launch Cézanne 2025, or what I’m calling Cézanne Summer. (Who needs Hot Girl Summer? Here in Nashville, it’s more like Help Me I’m Melting Summer.) Paul Cézanne was an Aix native, and as we explored in my Impressionism series, he returned to his beloved Provence later in life after growing tired of bustling Paris.
The festival, which runs through the end of October, coincides with the reopening of the freshly-renovated Bastide du Jas de Bouffan, the Cézanne family manor, and the artist’s final studio, Atelier des Lauves. Other events include a variety of gallery shows and performances, as well as a massive solo-exhibition of the artist’s work at the Musée Granet. The festival is expected to bring an additional 400,000 visitors to Aix over the next few months.
Here is a gift-link to an article about Aix and Cézanne 2025, written by Alexis Steinman for the New York Times. Steinman grew up in Marseille and discovered a deeper appreciation for neighboring Aix after a visit this spring.
There are one million things to love in your writing here! Thanks so much for all of it.