Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
The organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are still wiping the egg from their faces over the controversy surrounding the event’s possibly plagiarized, definitely dropped logo. Not only is the Organising Committee scrambling to prepare a new emblem, it also has to deal with recalling all of the promotional items it had already produced bearing the now cancelled design.
But with the rather convincing accusations that designer Kenjiro Sano copied the emblem coming so late in the game, some of those promotional materials have already made their way into the hands of private parties who are now reselling the sure to be rare items at a premium in online auctions.
If you head on over to Yahoo! Auctions, Japan’s most popular online auction house, you can place a bid for this pair of posters, sporting the looks created by either Sano or French designer Olivier Debie, depending on which side of the plagiarism debate you feel has made the more compelling case.
The seller, who goes by the screen name rucchi_en, says that the 103 by 72.5-centimeter posters have never been used, and are thus free of scratches and fading. Currently, the highest bid sits at 50,000 yen, although plunking down 100,000 yen will allow you to purchase the posters outright right now.
As a matter of fact, if you happen to have any posters or memorabilia sporting Sano’s Olympic emblem, the market for such items seems to be booming. On Sunday, a pair of Sano-designed Olympic and Paralympic posters (which may or may not be the same two rucchi_en is looking to unload), were successfully sold in an online auction for 45,000 yen, meaning that the market price for such items seems to have risen 11 percent in just a matter of days, a fantastic rate of growth for an investment.
If you’re interested in owning the posters, either to hang on your wall or try to flip to another buyer, bids can be placed for rucchi_en’s auction here. Alternatively, you can wait for the Tokyo Olympics Organising Committee to come up with a new, almost certainly more aesthetically pleasing pair of designs, then buy posters of them for a fraction of the cost.
Sources: Byokan Sunday, Yahoo! Auctions, NHK
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Looks like it’s time to say good-bye, and maybe good riddance, to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics logo -- Is there an adorably chubby bird hiding inside the Tokyo Olympics logo? -- Karate’s long fight to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
© Japan Today
4 Comments
Login to comment
nath
Inevitable.
GalapagosnoGairaishu
Goes to confirm the old adage about every cloud having a silver lining.
kokoro7
It was a stupid emblem. Beyond the fact that it was plagiarized, it just looked stupid!!!!!!!!!! I'm on board with the majority of those Japanese queried in the street about the emblem; need something that has a more Japanese feel to it.
Badge213
I personally feel they should just go with the emblem that was used when Tokyo was a Candidate City. It is a very nice emblem that embraces the Sakura flower.