BORDEAUX CITÉ DU VIN IS OFF TO A GOOD START: 130.000 VISITORS IN THE FIRST 3 MONTHS, BUT THE COUNCIL HAD "FORGOTTEN"ABOUT IMAGE RIGHTS AND NOW HAVE TO PAY 450.000 EUROS TO XTU, THE STUDIO THAT CURATED THE PROJECT

During the first three months since it opened, 130.000 people have visited the Bordeaux Cité du Vin. It had seemed to be one of those rare stories of perfect programming and planning which we in Italy are not much used to: delivery dates respected, no noticeable delays, financial forecasts revised upwards, no budget shortfalls, thanks to the participation of private companies.
But, nearly four months after the inauguration, the first problem has come up and is related to intellectual rights of the Cité du Vin, which perhaps by mistake, perhaps an oversight, stayed in the hands of the architects Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazières of the Paris-based company XTU, who planned the event. And, without these rights, the commercial exploitation of the project and all the related merchandising is impossible.

There are two possibilities: either giving the royalties to XTU for each gadget or reproduction for commercial purposes, or taking back the intellectual rights of the Cité, which include the right to exploit the image of the Cité.
The city council, headed by Alain Juppe, has been busy working on the problem and on September 26th decided on the second possibility; that is, giving 450.000 euros the architects per their request. This decision inevitably unleashes a huge controversy among those who consider the demands of XTU exorbitant, and those who say the city administration is inadequate...