In 2019, Belgian artist Christian Silvain told local media that he found that Chinese artist Ye Yongqing had copied his works. The incident had attracted widespread attention and had some impact on the ecology of Chinese contemporary art. Afterwards, Silvain filed a lawsuit, but Ye Yongqing did not respond. The Beijing Intellectual Property Court issued a notice on the website of the People’s Court, saying that it would hold a public hearing and asked Ye Yongqing to appear in court.

Recently, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court made a first-instance judgment on the case of Silvain v. Ye Yongqing for infringement of copyright dispute: Ye Yongqing shall immediately stop the infringement involved in the case; Ye Yongqing shall publish an apology statement in the Global Times outside the seam page, apologize to the plaintiff Silvain, and eliminate the impact. Ye Yongqing shall pay the plaintiff Silvain a compensation of 5 million yuan (RMB); the plaintiff Silvain’s other claims shall be rejected. If they are dissatisfied with this judgment, both parties may appeal to the Beijing Higher People’s Court. Silvain also confirmed the news of winning the lawsuit on social media on August 31, saying: “After four years of waiting, we won the trial in China.”

In 2019, Belgian artist Christian Silvain told local media that he found that Chinese artist Ye Yongqing had copied his works. Christian Silvain discovered that Ye Yongqing had copied his works created in the 1980s: “Birds, bird nests, bird cages, red crosses, airplanes… Everything is there! Except for my name, it looks exactly the same!”

Ye Yongqing, born in 1958, graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. He was a representative of the “Southwest Art Group” during the “85” art new wave period. At the same time, Ye Yongqing is also a famous curator, art activist and professor at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. Christian Silvain, a Belgian artist, was not well known to Chinese audiences before. The former’s works had been sold at auction for 600,000 euros, while the latter’s price was 6,000 euros before the “copying” incident.

With the outbreak of the “Ye Yongqing ‘copied’ Belgian artist Silvain” incident in March 2019, it changed the lives of both parties to some extent. In response to being accused of copying, Ye Yongqing later replied through the media: “We are trying to get in touch with this artist.” He did not completely deny his connection with Christian Silvain and said that he was deeply influenced by him. As for how to explain the similarity of their styles and other issues, Ye Yongqing said that he would not respond for the time being.

On March 7, 2019, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, where Ye Yongqing used to teach, issued a statement saying that it would investigate his alleged plagiarism and said that it would “announce relevant information in a timely manner”, “take a zero-tolerance attitude towards academic misconduct and other teacher ethics issues”, and “never tolerate it once verified”. Later, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts changed its attitude to “temporarily not investigating”, giving reasons such as: 1. Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts needs to apply to its superior department to initiate an investigation; 2. Ye Yongqing has retired and is not convenient for the academy to manage; 3. Some of Ye Yongqing’s paintings were not created as a teacher and it is not appropriate for the academy to investigate; 4. The alleged plagiarism incident was exposed during the tenure of the former leader and the current leader has been transferred. The new leader is not suitable to deal with old problems left by the old leader; 5. Ye Yongqing’s household registration is in Beijing and not in Chongqing and it is not convenient to conduct an investigation. After more than half a year passed and Ye Yongqing himself did not respond to the “plagiarism incident”, Silvain entrusted Chinese lawyers to file a legal lawsuit involving plagiarism. In November of the same year, Silvain held a solo exhibition “Memory 2019 - Silvain Original Exhibition” at Jiantu Bookstore on Shanghai North Bund.

Afterwards, Silvain filed a lawsuit, but Ye Yongqing did not respond and avoided receiving court documents sent by mail. On October 13, 2020, Beijing Intellectual Property Court issued a notice on the website of People’s Court saying that it would hold a public hearing and asked Ye Yongqing to appear in court. “If you refuse to appear without proper reasons at that time, the court will try in absentia according to law.”

It is worth noting that “notice delivery” is a way of delivering legal documents by public announcement, which is used when the recipient is missing or cannot be delivered by other means.

On September 9, 2021, the Civil Ruling of the Beijing Higher People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China showed that Silvain demanded Ye Yongqing to pay more than 50 million yuan in compensation. The “facts and reasons” section of the ruling explained that Ye Yongqing had continuously infringed Silvain’s copyright since he came into contact with Silvain’s works in the early 1990s.

In the ruling, Ye Yongqing appealed on the grounds of “objection to jurisdiction” and was rejected by the Beijing Higher People’s Court, upholding the original ruling.

According to relevant media reports, on August 22, 2023, Beijing Intellectual Property Court made a first-instance judgment on the case of infringement of copyright dispute: Ye Yongqing shall immediately stop the infringement involved in the case; Ye Yongqing shall publish an apology statement in the Global Times outside the seam page, apologize to the plaintiff Silvain, and eliminate the impact. Ye Yongqing shall pay the plaintiff Silvain a compensation of 5 million yuan (RMB); the plaintiff Silvain’s other claims shall be rejected.

Local time on August 31, Dutch media nieuwsblad.be announced that Christian Silvain had filed a plagiarism lawsuit in China and won. And Silvain confirmed the news of winning the lawsuit on social media on August 31, saying: “After four years of waiting, we won the trial in China.”