Wayfarer's Bauble was one of the reprinted cards in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander set, given a new illustration by David Sondered, who has drawn 15 Magic: The Gathering card arts so far including this one.
On November 19, 2023, artist Lorenzo Lanfranconi compared one of their paintings and the card side by side to show how the background of the art has been used on the card art:
@wizards_magic just want to let you know one of you artists stole one of my paintings to paste it as it is in the background of their illustration. I don't even want to know the reason behind this. It's so stupid that deserve a prize. LOL pic.twitter.com/hxfxaGKGTj
Not long after, David Sondrered released a statement on social media and claimed to have reached out to the original artist and Wizards of the Coast to settle the matter.
David Sondered Instagram
Statement From Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast subsequently released a statement:
We recently became aware of claims that David Sondered’s artwork on the card Wayfarer's Bauble used art created by another artist without that artist’s permission. Such misuse of art is expressly prohibited by our artist guidelines and does not reflect the values of Wizards of the Coast. As such, we will be suspending any future work with David Sondered until further notice.
Since then, all social media presence by David Sondered has been deactivated and Lorenzo Lanfranconi has also released a statement to say the matter has been clarified privately.
