What do a museum of antiquities by IM Pei nestled in wooded hills, a contemporary art complex designed by Tadao Ando on an island in the Inland Sea, and a sculpture museum and outdoor contemporary art centre housed on the top floor of a skyscraper in Tokyo have in common? They are all turned towards a dialogue between Nature and Culture...

This focus is not new for Japan, it’s even considered to be its specificity on the international art scene. The ability to combine Culture and Nature in such a perfectly organized manner, without neglecting any of the aspects of the two components, is one facet of Japanese culture.

Wednesday, May 12, 2008, Upper East Side, New York.

The crowd that came to witness the evening’s sale of Post War and Contemporary Art at Sotheby's is becoming impatient. Lot No. 9 will soon be brought to auction by the superstar auctioneer and Sotheby’s worldwide chairman of Contemporary Art, Tobias Meyer.

The work of contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami (1962) is very controversial and has caused heavy amounts of ink to flow in the media during the weeks before this sale. The above-mentioned Lot number 9 is Murakami’s man-sized figure in epoxy resin representing a young manga character completely naked, holding a lasso like form of semen as it gushes from his sexual organ.

Everyone seems to be asking the same questions: How much will this incredible sculpture sell for? Is My Lonesome Cowboy, a major work of art or a simple media buzz?

The concept of copyright law is not only found at the junction of law and art, but is also the crossroads of the major branches of law: public and private.