Manchester United accused of copying NFT artist for their own collection

On December 28, NFT artist Lucréce reported via Twitter that he is in talks with Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos, to get an explanation from Manchester United football about why the new NFT collection uses designs and styles similar to his own.

Lucréce’s collection is much older than United’s and has higher prices, reaching about 21 ETH ($24,919) per NFT. In contrast, each of the Red Devils’ 7,777 NFTs sold for around $40, and ran out of stock immediately after release.

Lucréce hopes to strike a deal with the Red Devils. which will benefit both parties, as the similarity between their artwork is so uncanny that some community users wondered if the artist was working to create the Manchester United project.

I don’t say @ManUtd was inspired by my work, but I’m not saying Manchester United weren’t inspired by my work. pic.twitter.com/q09Y6uouxF

— Lucréce (@DesLucrece) 23 December 2022

Although the artist was careful not to directly accuse Manchester United of plagiarizing his work, he did show an image on Twitter comparing the two artworks for readers to draw their own conclusions.

Are Manchester United copying Lucréce’s NFT artwork?

User ClownVampposted a series of tweets comparing both NFTs, noting that Lucréces was “one of Tezo’s most popular and oldest collections.”

The terms and conditions of the United collection state that the NFTs were created by TRILITECH PLATFORM OÜ, “the for-profit arm of the Tezos Foundation.” They are therefore authorized by the Tezos Foundation to mint and sell the digital collection of the England football team.

The Devils collection launched by Manchester United is the team’s second digital collectible. Each token has a unique set of features and entitles its owner to exclusive airdrops, special AMAs, private contests and other “surprises”. This would be the next step in a broader partnership between the team and Tezos.

Lucréce gets a response from Manchester United

Later today, Lucréce reported through his networks that thanks to the support of the community and Tezos, he received a response from Manchester United with a view to reaching an agreement, saying that the club had not contacted him due to the holidays.

Update: correspondence between me and ManU has started. Had a productive conversation with them just now. Probably last update on this for a while as everyone is still on vacation.

In times of adversity, you want to know who your friends are. Thank you, tezos community. 🤝

— Lucréce (@DesLucrece) 28 December 2022

Many of his followers expressed their delight at the club’s response, applauding how the artist politely handled the matter – which is not the usual way people handle controversies on Twitter.

As part of his demands, Lucréce asked for dinner with Cristiano Ronaldo. This was, of course, a joke, but the artist later wrote that the subject “was not brought up. Almost as if it was avoided.” How will the case turn out? Will he receive financial compensation, or will he have his dream dinner with the world-famous CR7?