Commercial use of public domain pictures

Question

Is it possible to use photographic reproduction of public domain artwork in the commercial work? Specifically, I was wondering if a printing company can print reproductions of the public domain artwork and deliver prints to both Europe and US? Are there any gotchas to watch out for?

Examples of few public domain famous artworks from Wikipedia:

Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Public domain in US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gustav_Klimt_047.jpg

Technically this isn’t the right forum. You might have better luck at graphic design in stack overflow — Nothingismagick, Feb 24 '18 at 11:44
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this site is not a legal site, nor is it a photography site. — Catija, Feb 24 '18 at 18:17
Thanks very much @Nothingismagick I wasn't aware of the other two stack overflows. — Datageek, Feb 24 '18 at 19:15

Nothingismagick · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-24T12:03:09.217

1

It depends on where you are selling and who made the photo.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reuse_of_PD-Art_photographs

In particular Germany and Norway will be tricky... if you can source the photographs and get the creator of the photograph to license the photo to you, you will be in a good position. This is because even thought the original painting is probably in the public domain, the photographer has their own rights...

edited Feb 24 '18 at 12:03

answered Feb 24 '18 at 11:47

Nothingismagick

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If you know it's off topic, please don't answer the question. – Catija Feb 24 '18 at 18:17
@Catija sorry - I answered it and then figured out I shouldn’t have... – Nothingismagick Feb 25 '18 at 03:42

Commercial use of public domain pictures

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