Crig showing his art impression on the wall at Padang Merdeka.
KOTA KINABALU: Local artist, Crig Francis, yesterday claimed that his artwork has been plagiarised by Kota Kinabalu City Hall.
And, he wants a public apology since he felt wronged and disrespected as an artist by City Hall.
He added that he has not formally written a formal complaint on the matter.
Nonetheless, he has tried to find out who was responsible for plagiarising his work but to no avail.
He stated that he submitted his artwork to City Hall’s tourism bureau division last year, stating that they wanted a mural design.
“I submitted my artwork together with the quotation and the number of artists who would be involved in the work,” he told press members yesterday at the Jesselton Hotel.
He said he was later informed that the project was stopped due to the upcoming election then.
However, he was surprised when his design ended up on the wall at Padang Merdeka a few months ago.
He claims that some changes were made to the design but in the main, the design stemmed from his idea.
Meanwhile, another artist who was present, Hani Mahdi, founder of Work In Progress, said that many Sabah artists are unaware of their intellectual property rights.
She said Sabah artists were also not getting the necessary respect for their work and that instances of plagiarism had occurred in the past. She added that unlike in West Malaysia, artists in Sabah still do not have a strong voice to defend their rights.