Eighteen fake Desmond Fountain statues were seized in Germany this week after it was discovered that the life-size bronze sculptures are being illegally mass reproduced in Asia.

The statues were then being sold for a fraction of the true value of the original in the USA and in Europe.

?The grand scale of this ?thievery? was brought to my attention recently by a colleague in the USA, through the discovery of one of my sculptures on the Internet,? Mr. Fountain said in an angry Press release.

The human form, he said, has been a source of inspiration for sculptors ?since the dawn of time?.

?It makes it all the more difficult to create original works of art to stand apart from the rest.?

The Press release explained that copies of the works were created using 3-D digital cameras.

The images are fed into a computer, where software reproduces the original form.

?It is basically as easy as making a photocopy, but this is theft and it is being operated by crooks.?

Of the statues copied, all but one can be found in Mr. Fountain?s book ? but exactly which statues they are remains unclear.

Mr. Fountain is currently travelling overseas, and will be interviewed by British newspapers on this subject next week.