City Hall selects new logo for Bucharest after plagiarism scandal

Bucharest City Hall has selected a new logo for the Romanian capital after the first winner of the contest was disqualified due to plagiarism accusations. The new winner is Alexandru Mihai Nenciu, who got the second highest score in the contest. He said that he wanted to create a logo that “condenses, both graphically and visually, a plurality of representative values for Bucharest - historical, cultural, sports and economic,” reads the statement from the City Hall. According to Nenciu, the logo represents the sum of four representative buildings for the capital, namely the Arch of Triumph, the CEC Palace, the Athenaeum and the National Arena. However, “to avoid situations such as those encountered at the first winning logo, the contest organizers decided, in agreement with the members of the jury, that the actual handing over of the prize and the signing of the copyright contract are to take place within seven days after the public announcement of the decision,” reads the statement. The winner will only be validated if no relevant complaints about a possible case of plagiarism or similarity with another logo appear in this period. This decision was taken after, in the case of the previous winner, people commented on the City Hall’s Facebook page, saying that the winning logo is strikingly similar to the logo of New Taipei, the most populous city of Taiwan. Thus,the City Hall decided to disqualify the first winner. The winner of the Bucharest contest will get a prize of RON 50,000 (EUR 11,000). https://www.facebook.com/PMBucuresti/videos/904356043035774/ Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com