Here is an amazing video by Nina Paley made from photographs of sculpture taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Nina is a big supporter of the Organization of Transformative Works, a nonprofit organization run by and for fans to provide access to and preserve the history of fanworks and fan cultures. With the rapid evolution of media culture, the spectrum from plagarism to derivitive to inspired is blurry, evolving as well.
Art, Spirit, Nature 
All Creative Work is Derivative –
I believe this is true in all fields not just art.
mrmcgoo
thanks for reading!