Artist Anya Pesce was stunned when she saw a gallery that once represented her, selling sculptures just like hers.
"I was shocked, and a little frazzled and confused, I thought 'what is this?' ... it set off some alarm bells for me," the artist told AAP.
The works were attributed to a French artist named Jean Paul Mangin - and she felt they were so similar, they were just about identical.
Pesce first developed her plastic moulding sculptural technique in 2015 while studying for an honours degree at Sydney's National Art School, the prestigious alma mater of artists such as Brett Whiteley, John Olsen and Margaret Olley.
She has long sold her hand-formed sculptures through Sydney gallery M Contemporary, but in 2018 she also signed a deal with another business, Studio Gallery Melbourne.
It's part of the broader Studio Gallery Group run by Kerry and Michael Armstrong, which has five locations across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Pesce's relationship with her new gallery started well - one year it made an estimated $50,000 in commissions from her works, she said.
Gallery director Kerry Armstrong asked questions about the glue used for mounting and brackets to hang the artworks, Pesce said. The gallery denies these questions were ever about technical specifications.
Pesce ended her contract with Studio Gallery in early 2021.
The gallery had warned her that another artist working in the same genre had made contact, and should Pesce leave, it would likely represent the other artist instead.
A few months later, she came across sculptures on Studio Gallery's Instagram account, attributed to an enigmatic French artist by the name of Jean Paul Mangin.
Just like her own best-selling artworks, they were formed from high-gloss plastic.
"A much awaited shipment from Paris! Seductive, sculptural works from Jean Paul Mangin ... Please send us your expression of interest," the gallery posted.
It wasn't long before there were many more for sale: Studio Gallery lists dozens of Jean Paul Mangin artworks online, priced from $2900 to $9800 - and even available for rent for several hundred dollars a month.
Studio Gallery has disputed the similarity of the artworks but declined to formally comment for this article.
Some of Pesce's fellow artists initially believed these sculptures were her work, while others questioned the timing, a lack of information about Jean Paul Mangin, and why a gallery would sell work similar to that of an artist they had recently represented.
But the commercial gallery world is small, and despite widespread sympathy for Pesce, other artists and gallerists were reluctant to speak on the record about her case.
Australian laws governing the copying of ideas in the arts world are loose and difficult to prosecute. The imitation of techniques, for example, is considered acceptable.
So who was this mysterious Jean Paul Mangin, making work so much like Pesce?
Studio Gallery promotes Jean Paul Mangin as an "internationally acclaimed and collected French sculpturist" who works out of a studio in Paris.
"Jean Paul Mangin’s work largely draws from his own intimate and emotional experiences of life," the gallery states.
"The artist feels the translation and physical embodiment of his oeuvre not only defines his future but creates a dialogue with the outside world, ultimately providing a safe place to heal, flow, and articulate."
When a friend of Pesce's inquired in writing about these sculptures with Kerry Armstrong, she was informed the artist does not have contact with the outside world.
"Jean Paul personally shuns contact, I am told he has trauma regarding an accident as a younger man," Armstrong said, adding that she believed the artist's work could speak for him.
"We respect his wishes and we're just feeling very fortunate to represent him and of course the stunning works."
Despite being one of their most prominent artists, Studio Gallery has never staged a solo show in his name.
And despite claims of his international reputation, it appears Jean Paul Mangin is not represented by any commercial galleries in France. Nor has his work been traded in European auction houses.
At any rate, shipping heavy sculptures from France to Australia is an expensive business, and attracts import duties.
Unlike most artists selling globally, Jean Paul Mangin does not have a website: the little online presence that does exist is through Studio Gallery.
For Pesce, it doesn't add up. She asked the gallery to provide contact details, contracts, invoices and consignment notices relating to Jean Paul Mangin - but her requests were futile.
"There was nothing unreasonable in what we were asking - if he exists, please show where the work was produced, or a little more about his practice, because he's an internationally acclaimed artist," she said.
"To make those sweeping statements, you would think they'd have some sort of documentation to back that up, and we've never seen it."
Pesce has come to believe that Jean Paul Mangin simply does not exist.
Studio Gallery disputes this account, but has not provided an on-the-record response for this story, or documentation to substantiate its international trade with Jean Paul Mangin.
The gallery has declined to comment on the motivations of any of the artists in its stable.
Much of the artwork attributed to Jean Paul Mangin is promoted in the interior design market, where scrutiny of provenance is far less rigorous than for art sold to high-end buyers.
It's also been shared widely online - since Jean Paul Mangin's work first appeared for sale in 2021, it's been featured by the likes of Vogue Living, Est Living, the Affordable Art Fair and various interior designers.
"I fear anybody who has bought the work has probably bought it believing that it's being made in France by a French artist," said Pesce.
"It is very wrong - most collectors, buyers, people who purchase work, would like to think that there's an artist behind it."
The injustice of imitation which Pesce feels she has suffered could happen to any Australian artist.
Like most artists, Pesce insists the hard work of making authentic art lies in research, reflection, and experimentation, with her sculptural style the product of years of development.
Pesce tried to get legal help, and complained to Fair Trading and the ACCC - but again, her efforts came to nought.
While the law offers some protections, copyright does not protect ideas - or artistic styles and techniques.
Artists who want to stop their work being copied face some difficult hurdles, according to the chief executive of the Arts Law Centre of Australia, Louise Buckingham.
"In theory they can begin the process of enforcing their rights, which ultimately ends up being through the legal adversarial process," she told AAP.
"But because of the way our system works, it can be something that's impossibly expensive, time consuming, and it's just too great a hurdle for lots of artists to to embark upon."
While Pesce's work is still in demand through Sydney gallery M Contemporary, knowing work attributed to Jean Paul Mangin is also on the market is an ongoing source of stress.
"I think about it every day still, it really matters - it's not even about my work, it's bigger than that, it's disgusting," she said.
"I just cannot believe that it hasn't been stopped."
Have you bought a Jean Paul Mangin artwork? If so please email lhobday@aap.com.au
