Apr 05 (Japan Times) - An art installation featuring a telephone booth filled with water and dozens of goldfish will be removed from in front of a coffee shop in Nara Prefecture after an accusation of plagiarism, the local body managing the property said Wednesday.
The telephone booth in Yamatokoriyama “resembles one of my pieces,†Nobuki Yamamoto, an artist from Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, said at a news conference in Nara the same day.
Yamatokoriyama is known for its abundance of goldfish farms and as the host of a nationwide goldfish scooping competition, a popular event at summer festivals.
According to Yamamoto, the telephone booth there was first displayed at an event organized by a local merchant association in 2013. But the 62-year-old artist said he unveiled a similar booth featuring swimming goldfish in 1998 in Tokyo and later put it on display at a museum in Iwaki.
The artist has lodged protests since 2013 and said he would also consider filing a lawsuit.
