Jeff Koons turns Old Masters into Louis Vuitton bags

Louis Vuitton's latest artist collaboration sees Jeff Koons take the notion of a 'work of art' to a whole different level - putting works by Old Masters including Da Vinci and Rubens onto leather goods. Watch our video to see Koons explain all...

Louis Vuitton is a house with a long and controversial history of artist collaborations - previous creative director Marc Jacobs brought Takashi Murakami on board to take apart and reimagine the house monogram in pop-colour Japanese kawaii style, a collaboration that lasted 13 years. And remember the Speedy bags that were covered in watercolour paint by artist Richard Prince?

https://youtu.be/RLFRiEyOBuo

The latest artist to join Louis Vuitton's long and storied list of collaborators is Jeff Koons. Masters x Louis Vuitton x Jeff Koons launches on 28th April. It took the American artist and the French house over two years to persuade the keepers of some of the world's most prized artworks to allow their paintings to be reproduced on the brand’s most iconic bags, including the Speedy, the Keepall and the Neverfull. Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is one, below:

The other artists featured include Titian, Rubens and Fragonard:

Koons, whose personal worth is estimated at $1bn, is the artist behind iconic work including a life-size porcelain sculpture of Michael Jackson and Bubbles and Balloon Dog – a 10ft high high-shine magenta steel dog that sold for $58m – the highest sum paid for a living artist’s work.

He's added some of his signature flourishes such as a mini version of his iconic inflatable Rabbit, and for the first time ever, the Louis Vuitton monogram bears the artist’s initials.

An old work of art turned into a new work of art by one of the art world's most iconic figures - how moderne...See Koons talk about the collaboration in the video above.