The public art work of Kaohsiung Branch of the Administrative and Executive Office of the Ministry of Justice, created by Taiwanese artist Cai Wenxiang, was plagiarized.

(Photo by reporter Huang Jialin)

[Reporter Huang Jialin / Kaohsiung Report] The newly built office building of the Kaohsiung Branch of the Administrative and Executive Office of the Ministry of Justice was revealed by the public that the public art work of the new office building costing 2 million yuan was suspected of plagiarizing the works of Japanese artist Tomoji Kimino, and the similarity was as high as 99%.

Since its establishment in 2001, the Kaohsiung Branch has leased the building located at Fuxing 1st Road, Xinxing District, Kaohsiung City for a long time as an office building. However, due to the lack of internal space in the building, the Kaohsiung Branch invested NT$336.8 million to build its own building. officially launched.

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According to regulations, public works with a total project budget of more than 10 million yuan should be equipped with public art, and the funding should not be less than 1% of the direct project cost of the project contract. A total of 7 manufacturers bid for the election, and the expert meeting composed of 7 committee members made the final selection. The Taiwan artist Cai Wenxiang won the bid to undertake the case.

The people who broke the news pointed out that Cai Wenxiang's work is called "Fairness and Justice. Harmony", and the appearance is structured with arcs and curves, which symbolizes fairness and justice. The appearance is as high as 99% similar, and it is suspected of plagiarizing others.

The people who broke the news said that the original work of Tomoji Kimino was completed after 2000 and was publicly displayed in Japan in 2015. When the original work was exhibited in Taiwan in 2018, it was even collected by the Yingge Ceramics Museum; in accordance with the Government Procurement Law and the procurement contract in this case, The serious plagiarism shall be withdrawn, and all production costs shall be recovered, and the negligent undertaker and manufacturer shall be investigated.

In this regard, the Kaohsiung branch said frankly that if you only look at the appearance of two works, the similarity is very high and there is a possibility of plagiarism, but whether the artwork constitutes plagiarism, it also needs to examine many factors such as the material, proportion and design concept of the work. The branch has now organized another group. External experts conduct the review.

The Kaohsiung branch pointed out that according to the content of the contract, the winning bidder should ensure that the public art is an original work, has not been published at home and abroad, and is the only version, and does not infringe on the copyright of others. If the review confirms that it is a plagiarized work, in addition to investigating the negligence of the undertaker, the follow-up will be handled in accordance with the relevant legal provisions and the content of the contract.

The public art works of Kaohsiung Branch of the Administrative and Enforcement Administration of the Ministry of Justice were plagiarized by Japanese artists, and the similarity in appearance reached 99%.

(Photo by reporter Huang Jialin)

Japanese artist Tomoji Kino's work "Chan (eye)" (file photo)