A giant yellow rubber duck is coming to Ontario to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday this year, and the Dutch artist who says he’s behind the original art installation claims that this duck is a fraud.
The duck, worth $200,000, has been called a “counterfeit” by artist Florentijn Hofman.
Hofman’s art studio claims that the duck retained by the Canadian government, “is in fact a counterfeit of their original piece of art.”
The studio says it retained Craig Samborski to assist in the production of the art installation in Los Angeles in 2014. A release says that since that time, Samborski has been using the design to profit off of what was supposed to be a public art installation.
“The duck was never supposed to be used for profit. It was designed to be a public art installation to bring joy and hope wherever it went,” reads the studio’s statement. “By renting the duck at exorbitant rates against the wishes of its creator, Mr. Samborski not only is stealing this joy from the public, he is also stealing from the legitimate artist and creator of this exhibit.”
“We feel that it is the antithesis of what we assume the Canada 150 celebrations should be all about. Had a Canadian government official tried to contact us, we would have provided the real duck. It is unfortunate this due diligence wasn’t completed.”
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