Photo by Mr. Beaver, courtesy Flickr

Starting September 1, the penalty for illegally selling a lightbulb with a filament will be $70,000.

Bruce Nauman Robert Rauschenberg Ilya Kabakov Mike Kelley Joseph Beuys Olafur Eliasson Valie Export Isa Genzken

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According to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, a law set to go into effect this fall bans the sale of incandescent lightbulbs of any kind in favor of more environmentally friendly fluorescent ones, even if those bulbs are to be used in an artwork. The law, which comes with a hefty $70,000 fine for illegal bulb peddlers, would affect not only works that take the lightbulb as a primary material, such as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s Light-Space-Modulator, which uses 140, and works in which Edison's invention makes a simpler appearance, such as several by Ilya Kabakov that feature just a lone bulb, but also the way in which installations are lit. Other artists whose work may go dark include Rauschenberg, Kienholz, Tinguely, Beuys, Olafur Eliasson, Carsten Höller, Jorge Pardo, Valie Export, Stephan Huber, Isa Genzken, Mike Kelley, and Adrian Paci. Maybe Bruce Nauman and Dan Flavin will fare OK?

Read more at Artforum.