The “fake” Dalí Museum in Berlin refuses to change its name

Berlin (ACN).- ‘Dalí – Die Austellung’ (Dalí, The Exhibition) is the title of a permanent exhibition in Germany’s capital city. Its website is www.dali-museum.de. The Gala - Salvador Dalí Foundation, which is responsible for the artist’s estate, thinks Berlin’s gallery is using the “official” name of Dalí Museums. “It is an unfair competition” claims the Gala - Salvador Dalí Foundation and is “confusing for both consumers and art enthusiasts”. The Foundation sued the Berlin gallery after it presented itself to the public as “a unique, special and official event”.

Last July, the court ruled in favour of the Gala Salvador Dalí Foundation and ordered the Berlin gallery to do two things: first, to stop using the name of the artist in its title ‘Dalí – Die Austellung’; and second, to shut down its web site. As a result, ‘www.dali-museum.de’ is no longer active. The gallery appealed the decision and assured CNA that it is a legal museum fully recognised in German law. The museum has changed its name to ‘Dalí – Die Austellung am Postdamer Platz’ in reference to one of Berlin’s most famous squares. 

Berlin’s Dalí Museum assures that it will continue exhibiting more than 450 drawings of the Catalan artist, and considers that closing the museum to the public is not an option. According to the ‘Dali – Die Austellung’s director, “we are an official museum, according to German law” and they are also a part of the Deutscher Museumsbund (German Museums association)

According to the Berlin museum, the Gala – Salvador Dalí Foundation sees them as a “growing and serious competition” and claims that the Catalan Foundation was the one to “declare this court war”. They also emphasised they did not want this situation to end this way, but they had to appeal a sentence that is yet to be solved. Furthermore, the Berlin museum defends itself claiming that there are other museums in London and Paris with permanent exhibitions of Salvador Dalí’s work, and neither of them are accepted by the Catalan Foundation.

The Gala – Salvador Dalí Foundation assures that before suing the Berlin Museum, they studied the case thoroughly and got in touch with the gallery before taking legal actions. The Catalan Foundation does not want an open war against the “fake” Berlin museum, but it wants to “protect Salvador Dalí’s heritage”. Both sides are now waiting for the judge’s resolution.