Brancusi made his first Bird in Space in 1923, and continued to develop the theme in subsequent sculptures such as this one. Originality became a point of debate in the 1927 trial Brancusi v. United States, when the artist attempted to ship a 1926 bronze Bird in Space to New York. U.S. customs officials claimed the sculpture didn’t qualify as a work of art; it did not literally resemble a bird, and it appeared to be an industrially produced object. In 1928 the case was decided in the artist’s favor, largely because of how the work was made and the fact that it was indeed singular.