It has been a common issue faced by Maldivian artists; “Stolen art” , “Plagiarism”, “Copied Art” etc. The list of accusations goes on and most of them are the truth.
This time, it’s about a well known digital artist. The person behind the Facebook page “Digital Chemist Arts” and a lot of other arts which has been very common throughout the artistic community in the Maldives.
A lion pictured by Ali Shimhaq 5 years ago just got stolen with all the rights just like that by a well-known person. American band Back Street Boy’s Nick Carter’s younger brother Aron Carter apparently googled and “retouched” the photo and this leads him to claim the piece miraculously.
Shimhaq has been very diplomatic about the issue stating that he always welcomes anyone who approaches him to get any of his pieces. Rather than doing this, when people take the advantage and steal the hard-worked art pieces are not things he could accept, he added.
This problem has been faced with a lot of Maldivians to date. Question is, what can be done to protect our artist’s rights. As individuals, it is important to support their hard work locally. When our artists face any such problem, the responsible authorities should help our artists in any way possible.
