Nirvana’s Nevermind album artwork is perhaps the band’s most memorable, featuring an underwater shot of a baby swimming towards a dollar bill that's attached to a fish hook.
But this 1991 album cover is now the centre of a lawsuit in the US.
Spencer Elden, now 30, was photographed for the cover when he was only four months old, and is suing the surviving members of the band and Kurt Cobain’s estate, arguing child sexual exploitation and alleging that the image constitutes child pornography.
The story was first reported by TMZ and confirmed by Pitchfork.
Elden’s lawsuit has also named Kirk Weddle, the photographer behind the image, and the record label of the album.
In the legal documents, Elden claims that neither he, owing to being so young, nor his legal guardians provided consent to the image. He said the band had given assurances that his genitals would not be explicitly shown and instead covered with a sticker, but this did not happen.
The legal papers also state that the image “lasciviously displayed Spencer’s genitals from the time he was an infant to the present day”.
Elden claims the image has had a lasting impact on his life, career and overall mental health.
The lawsuit states: “The permanent harm he has proximately suffered includes but is not limited to extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations, interference with his normal development and educational progress, lifelong loss of income earning capacity, loss of past and future wages, past and future expenses for medical and psychological treatment, loss of enjoyment of life, and other losses to be described and proven at trial of this matter.”
Elden is asking for damages of at least $150,000 from each of the 15 defendants, who include Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Courtney Love, Cobain’s ex-wife.
The story of how the photograph came to be was recounted by Elden’s father, Rick, in 2008, while speaking on a US radio show. He said Weddle was a family friend who offered to pay him $200 to use the young Spencer as a subject.
“We just had a big party at the pool, and no one had any idea what was going on,” he said.
It wasn’t until a few months later that the album cover was revealed. NPR also reported that Geffen Records had sent Spencer Elden a platinum copy of the album and a teddy bear months later.
Over the years, Elden has recreated the photo for the album’s anniversaries. In the images, he is not nude and wears swimming shorts.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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