This year, renowned football club Manchester United collaborated with the Tezos foundation over an NFT collection. On 21st December, the club launched The Devils collection. A collection of approximately 7,777 NFTs, costing around $36 each. The collection has sold out. However, the designs of the NFT collection managed to catch Lucréce’s attention. The digital artist accused Manchester United of copying his designs. On 28th December, the digital artist announced his discussions with the co-founder of Tezos, Arthur Breitman. These talks were held to deduce why Manchester United’s designs were strikingly similar to his.
Lucréce ensured he did not directly accuse Manchester United of copying his art. He displayed the similarities between them nonetheless. Lucréce’s collection is much older than the football club’s and is also more expensive. Prices can reach up to approximately 21ETH, depending on the type of artwork. The NFT collection of the club sold out almost immediately after its release. The digital artist wanted to strike a deal with the football club as it would benefit both parties. A distinctive number of people believed Lucréce had involvement in designing Manchester United’s artwork based on the similarities.
In a recent development, Lucréce took it to Twitter and announced that the correspondence between him and Manchester United had begun. Moreover, he stated that he had a productive call with them. He even thanked the Tezos community for supporting him throughout the way. Many fans expressed gratitude towards the club for handling such a situation respectfully.
Update: correspondence between me and ManU has started. Had a productive call with them just now. Probably the last update on this for a while since everyone is still on holiday.
In times of adversity, you’ll know who your friends are. Thank you, tezos community. 🤝
— Lucréce (@DesLucrece) December 28, 2022
Did Manchester United Actually Copy Lucréce?
A Twitter under the name ClownVamp posted several tweets comparing both NFTs. The user noted that Lucréce’s was Tezos’ popular and oldest collection. However, based on the club’s collection terms and conditions, the Trilitech Platform created these NFTs. It is the for-profit arm of the Tezos foundation. The firm permitted it to produce and sell digital collections of Manchester United.
Each NFT of The Devil’s collection has unique attributes, including other surprises. These even include the availability of exclusive airdrops. This would follow based on a more in-depth collaboration between the team and Tezos. Moreover, Lucréce even posted a tweet comparing his art with that of Manchester United. It is up to the users to decide whether their art was copied.
