On this week’s art crime blotter: artist sues Starbucks over “Mini Frappuccino” design, staff at Spanish tourist destination use audio guides to launder money, and the creator of the giant inflatable rubber duck sculptures disowns one of his ducklings.
Florentijn Hofman
Posted inIn Brief
Foul Weather Foils Floating Fowl Facsimile
A Chinese company is on the hunt for the world’s largest rubber duck, last seen Wednesday floating on a river in southwest China, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Posted inNews
Doubled Dutchman Drubs Dubai in Duplicate Duckie Debacle [UPDATED]
This duck tale is no canard: An Emirates car wash is in hot water after deploying a maritime facsimile of Florentijn Hofman’s giant rubber duck — “Rubber Duck” (2009) — as a marketing stunt.
Posted inArt
How Pop Art Got “Ripped Off”
CHICAGO — A giant replica of the classic yellow rubber duckie drifted into Hong Kong’s harbor last month. Sailing across the water, bobbing about as if in a giant, public bathtub, the Pop art-inspired duck, created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman in 2007, is essentially an enlarged version of the “original” rubber duckie.
