If you turn the models for the pieces into Dali-esque versions (to use one example of a possible transform) of the original hand-carved pieces, I think you could make a strong case in court (if necessary) for that being artistic. If you do something too simple, like turning the pieces upside down, the heirs could more easily attack that as an attempt to game the system. The identity matrix is the simplest transformation, and thus easiest to attack.
It would be like claiming someone violated the DMCA when they bypassed some anti-circumvention mechanism. If your anti-circumvention mechanism used strong crypto, you’re more likely to succeed in your claim than if your anti-circumvention mechanism was encrypted with ROT-13 and much more likely to succeed than if you claim you encrypted it using ROT-26
