Spot the Difference

If good artists borrow but great artists steal, as the saying goes, then Japanese artist Yoshihiko Wada could be considered one of the best. A painter whose dark, moody canvases could sell for upwards of $15,000, Wada won Japan's prestigious Minister of Education Art Encouragement Prize in March. But a few weeks later, an anonymous tipster alerted government officials that several of his paintings were virtual replicas of works by an Italian artist, Alberto Sughi. When confronted by the media, the 66-year-old Wada claimed his works were an "homage" to Sughi, not theft. Sughi, however, had a different view of their relationship. According to him, Wada had visited his studio in Rome as often as five times a year, often taking photos of his work from multiple angles. "I thought Wada was a fan of my paintings," Sughi told the Mainichi Daily News. "I never thought he was a painter. I'm shocked ... They are clearly plagiarized."

After comparing Wada and Sughi's works, Japan's Cultural Affairs Agency decided to strip Wada of his award last week. So far, Wada has been less than repentant. "My style has been to borrow other artists' compositions and add some of my own ideas to them," he told the Yomiuri Shimbun the day before his award was retracted. "Only artists who have studied abroad can understand the subtle difference in nuance."