The National Palace Museum yesterday was accused of plagiarizing a jewel designed by Wang Pei-hao (王培浩), who hoped to see “a sincere apology” from the museum in newspapers, but was disappointed.
The museum’s Peony Brooch copied the design of Wang’s Cape Jasmine Brooch, part of a product line that bears his name, Wang said at a news conference with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖).
The museum via the Institute for Information Industry, commissioned Luperla Jewelry, a Taipei-based jewelry producer, to design the Peony Brooch.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Luperla is best known for a pearl necklace it designed that was worn by former US first lady Michelle Obama at the G20 summit in 2009.
“Artistic design is not as easy as it looks,” Wang said. “I spent about seven years brooding over the brooch’s design.”
If the museum did not reference the original brooch, it would be unlikely that the two pieces would be so similar in every detail, including the number of crystals used, 291, and the location of the designer’s signature, he said.
“The only difference is that the fake piece is signed ‘National Palace Museum,’” Chen said.
“The museum should take the lead in protecting our designers and original art,” he said, adding that a state-run institution should not be so careless about intellectual property.
The museum said in a statement that Peony Brooch was inspired by a Qing-Dynasty painting in its collection, Immortal Blossoms in an Everlasting Spring (Peonies) by Giuseppe Castiglione (朗世寧).
In February, the museum recalled the brooch and the producer’s other products from its stores after receiving the designer’s complaint from Formosa Transnational Attorneys at Law, it said.
Deputy director of the museum’s Department of Cultural Creativity and Marketing Wang Yao-feng (王耀鋒) said the museum had reviewed the producer in-depth before it commissioned them to create products for the museum store.
The museum could not have known whether the producer’s designs were original, Wang said.
“Our producer has been in communication with Wang, but they have not arrived at a consensus,” Wang Yao-feng said, adding that the museum could not issue an apology before the contracted producer’s legal responsibility was clarified.
Chen said he was infuriated by the museum’s evasion of responsibility and would be more scrupulous when reviewing its budget in the legislature today.
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