‘Damien Hirst stole my cherry blossom’: artist faces plagiarism claim number 16

Damien Hirst at the opening of his Cherry Blossoms show, at the Fondation Cartier in Paris. Photograph: Ed Alcock/The Guardian

Over the years, Damien Hirst has faced more than one accusation of copying someone else’s work, with artists variously claiming to have created his diamond skull, his medicine-cabinets and his spin-paintings before he did. The one-time enfant terrible of the British art world has always denied plagiarism, although he did go as far as saying in an interview in 2018 that “all my ideas are stolen anyway”.

Now he is facing fresh allegations. His cherry blossom paintings in his latest exhibition, which has just closed in Paris, have prompted outrage from the English artist and writer Joe Machine, who says they look just like his own cherry blossom paintings.