Temu, Amazon, Aliexpress, Shein… Artists’ works stolen from major online sales sites

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On some e-commerce platforms, resellers appropriate paintings and drawings to sell them. A practice that the creators of these creations are struggling to combat.

Two works by artist Krista Perry reproduced on a blanket (left) and an illustration (right) sold on Shein. (Krista Perry/Erickson Law Group)

Browsing these online sales sites, you can discover a host of paintings at bargain prices to decorate your home. Temu, Aliexpress, Amazon, and Shein are brimming with possibilities: abstract paintings with vivid flat colors, watercolor still lifes, colorful celebrity portraits... Whether it's postcards or masterpieces, there's something for everyone. If there's so much choice, it's because resellers with unethical methods are constantly expanding the catalogs, and these e-commerce platforms rarely moderate these sales, on which they receive a commission. Except for Shein, which is not a marketplace and therefore only sells its own products.

This is how, on August 4, British illustrator Micaela Alcaino discovered with astonishment that a large part of her works were sold on Temu : they were printed on "blankets, towels, rugs, and even shower curtains," she laments in