The town of Mornington, near the Australian metropolis of Melbourne, hires artists as part of a graffiti prevention project and has them create large murals. Adrian Doyle also unveiled a work last December. He called it “Portrait of a Local Fisherman”. The painting showed a fisherman sitting on a wall surrounded by butterflies.
Doyle received the equivalent of 3,300 francs for it. In the meantime, however, the painting has already been painted over. The problem: It was strikingly similar to the mural “Der Plessurischer” by the Chur artist Bane. This is on a block at Sägenstrasse 8 in Chur and shows Fredy Dekumbis from the Chur fishing club, who died last year.
Bane takes it with humor
Bane found out about the copy across the world via social media. “Dr Plessurfischer knows about the world,” he wrote with amusement on Facebook. The comments rolled over. “You can’t top the original,” said one user. “What a compliment, only true works of art are copied,” wrote another.
“There are people who are called ‘spotters’. They informed me about the painting in Australia and then knocked the bush,” Bane tells FM1 Today. However, Bane wasn’t upset about the plagiarism. “There are two ways to react to something like this: either you get angry or you accept it with humor and a smile,” says the artist. It’s almost an honor for him to be copied. “It shows me that my influence is increasing.”
Those responsible for the graffiti prevention project told the Mornington News: “Because the graffiti prevention project specifically supports original works, we decided to have the mural painted over and hire a different artist.” It will now be replaced by a work by another artist. Adrian Doyle admitted his mistake and took responsibility for it. He will pay back the 3,300 francs he received for the job. (noo)