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The owner of fashion brand Balenciaga has been targeted on social media over what some have branded a "disturbing" selection of child-themed art pieces that have been hosted and sold on its auction website.

Balenciaga has faced widespread backlash in recent days for since-deleted campaign images shown on its website that included toddlers holding the company's teddy bear handbags. The stuffed toys appeared to be dressed in bondage gear, such as fishnet shirts and studded leather harnesses and collars.

Following days of criticism, Balenciaga brand ambassador Kim Kardashian said in a statement shared Sunday on Twitter that she was "disgusted" and "shaken" by the images. Other public figures have also criticized the photos.

As social media users continue to scrutinize the luxury fashion brand and its offerings, they have turned their attention to a number of art pieces depicting children with genitalia in place of their noses and mouths, among other features, on the website of world-leading auction house Christie's.

Christie's is owned by Groupe Artémis, François-Henri Pinault's holding company. Multi-billionaire Pinault, husband of screen star Salma Hayek, is also the chairman and CEO of Kering, the multinational company that owns Balenciaga, leading some online to draw connections between the two.

Despite the online criticism, there is no evidence to suggest that Pinault would have any input on the works in question, or any other art, going up on the Christie's website.

The mannequins featured on the Christie's website were made by artists Jake and Dinos Chapman and show depictions of naked children, a number of whom are conjoined. There are also depictions of severed heads.

Despite the recent focus on it online, the British brothers' deliberately provocative work has been sold via Christie's for more than two decades, achieving prices that range from hundreds of dollars to more than $500,000.

Among the pieces sold was the videotape of a pornographic film, shot in 1996, which showed actresses having sex with the severed head of an adult male mannequin. It sold back in 2001 for the equivalent of more than $1,300.

Images of the art pieces were circulated on Twitter and Reddit this week, with users of the social media platforms branding them "disturbing" and "shocking."

Others pointed out that it was wrong to draw any connection and criticized the attacks on Christie's, with one Reddit user saying: "Kering is the parent company of multiple luxury brands so I don't think billionaire owner Francois is really involved in each and every campaign of said brands. Neither is he sitting in Christie's office checking their affiliated artists. This whole post reads like a Q conspiracy theory."

Another said: "You can hate Jake & Dinos all you want, but Christie's really has nothing to do with them or what they're trying to do with their art."

The pair came to prominence in the 1990s as leading members of the so-called Young British Artist generation. They were nominated for the Turner Prize in 2003. In an interview with the image licensing service Artimage in 2018, they said of their work: "We reflect upon the conditions of our experience, first as tragedy then as farce."

In an interview with The Guardian, published in May, Jake Chapman confirmed that he and his elder brother had gone their separate ways creatively.

"Nothing about our practice was amicable," he said. "It was never a love-in. It was always tinged with a certain seething disdain for each other so I guess at some point that reached critical mass, and we decided to go our separate ways."

Newsweek has reached out to representatives of Christie's and the Chapmans for comment.

Balenciaga recently came under fire for its Balenciaga Objects collection ad campaign, titled "Balenciaga Gift Shop," that was shot by Gabriele Galimberti.

Galimberti told Newsweek he was not responsible for the content of the images in the photo shoot, including the children with the toy bears in fishnet shirts, studded leather harnesses and collars.

"I am not in a position to comment [on] Balenciaga's choices, but I must stress that I was not entitled in whatsoever manner to neither chose the products, nor the models, nor the combination of the same," Galimberti said.

He continued, "As a photographer, I was only and solely requested to lit the given scene and take the shots according to my signature style. As usual, the direction of the campaign and of the shooting are not [in] the hands of the photographer."

In a Balenciaga photo shoot for its new joint campaign with Adidas, shot by Chris Maggio, people noticed a pile of papers that included a page from the 2008 Supreme Court ruling United States v. Williams.

The ruling upheld the PROTECT Act, a 2003 federal law that criminalizes advertising, promoting, presenting or distributing child pornography. Its acronym stands for Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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