The Tortellino Theft

Fonte

Corriere di Bologna

Cristina Cati, an illustrator and artist from Bologna, has won a lawsuit against Ikea for copyright infringement. A victory that few believed possible, but which she pursued with determination all the way to a final ruling.
It all began in December 2021, when one of Cati's Instagram followers noticed something unusual inside the Ikea store in Bologna-Casalecchio di Reno: one of the Bologna-based artist's illustrations — titled "Tortellino" — was on display in the store. The young woman, initially assuming it was the result of an official collaboration, grew suspicious when she couldn't find the author's name anywhere. She took some photographs and alerted Cati. The illustrator had signed no agreement whatsoever with the Swedish furniture giant.
The work had been reproduced and used without authorisation, and had also been altered: according to the reconstruction of events, Ikea reportedly purchased a print from Cati's website — where the artist sells reproductions of her work — and had it enlarged and reprinted at high resolution. One version had been applied to a tall, narrow vertical print, typical of Ikea's home décor range, with the words "tortellini in brodo" and the corresponding recipe overlaid on top. A second reproduction had ended up on a cutting board. In both cases, the author's name and the original title had been removed.
Cati immediately turned to a lawyer specialising in intellectual property law to pursue legal action. Sceptical voices were quick to emerge: "A chorus of people immediately told me not to do it — that it was impossible to go up against Ikea and that I'd get nothing out of it," the illustrator recalls. "But I felt I had to. And not just for the sake of compensation. I wanted to defend my work. Behind an illustration there are ideas, attempts, time, study, mistakes and revisions. Every piece I make comes from an original idea, from research, from a personal visual language."
Before the case reached court, an out-of-court settlement was attempted: the lawyer sent a cease-and-desist letter, and Cati sought an amicable resolution. Ikea responded with a financial offer deemed insufficient, without ever showing genuine willingness to engage. Negotiations stalled, and the case was brought before the civil division of the Court of Bologna, which handles disputes relating to intellectual property.
The ruling, now final and no longer subject to appeal, found entirely in the artist's favour. The court recognised "Tortellino" as a creative work protected under copyright law, and established that both economic rights — linked to the commercial use of the work in a highly visible context, without attribution — and moral rights had been violated, the latter having been compromised by the modifications Ikea made to the original. Cristina Cati was awarded damages of €7,552, plus interest.
A victory that goes beyond its monetary value: it is confirmation that even an individual creator can assert their rights against a multinational corporation, and that artistic work — built on research, time and identity — deserves the same protection as any other form of property.