John Gilbert's Love #5

The artist who created the iconic LOVE logo, Robert Indiana, has been sparring with his ex-business partner John Gilbert—most recently over a Sanskrit version of the design. Now the 81-year-old Indiana claims that Gilbert is painting threats directed towards him in his own artwork.

According to the Post, in papers filed by Indiana in Manhattan federal court yesterday, claims are made that Gilbert is making hidden threats, and has also "sufficiently disseminated his false statements to the relevant purchasing public through his Web site and continues to disseminate those false statements." Basically, Gilbert claims he paid Indiana over $55K to create the Sanskrit version of the logo (which would read PREM), but Indiana later reneged on the deal. Gilbert still has the PREM creations on his website, and has now added his new pieces, which contain threatening messages that are pretty clearly directed at Indiana.

The above painting, titled Love #5, reads: 'If anyone tries to take the LOVE away from me, I will kill them." Subtle! Another reads: "He assigned his rights, and my contract pre-dates that assignment," and yet another declares: "Shut your mouth or I will shut it for you."