Old advertising artwork falsely shared as an artwork of Afghanistan artist Shamsia Hassani - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 17, 2021
A photo is being shared on social media claiming it as an incredible artwork by Afghanistan graffiti artist Shamsia Hassani. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Photo of an artwork created by the Afghanistan graffiti artist Shamsia Hassani.
Fact: This artwork was created by the Young & Rubicam advertising agency for the Reporter magazine in 2018. Shamsia Hassani through a tweet clarified that this artwork was not created by her. This artwork was created much before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On searching for this artwork on Shamsia Hassani’s official social media handles, we found that Shamsia Hassani made a tweet regarding this artwork circulating on social media. Shamsia Hassani through this tweet said, “recently I noticed that hundreds of social media users shared this image as my artwork on their profiles/pages, but this is not my artwork. I know that they wanted to support me and my art but please make sure to give the credit to the real artist”.
Recently I noticed that hundreds of social media users shared this image as my artwork on their profiles/ pages, but this is not my artwork.
I know that they wanted to support me and my art but please make sure to give the credit to the real artist. pic.twitter.com/MGRf5776cB
On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo was found published on the ‘Clio’ website.  This website reported it as an artwork created by the Young & Rubicam advertising agency network in 2018. Prague-based Young & Rubicam agency network created this artwork for the ‘Reporter’ Magazine. This artwork was created as part of the Reporter magazine’s “Changing Your Perspective: Questioning Radicalism” campaign. The same artwork was published on several websites crediting it to Young & Rubicam advertising agency. They can be seen here, here, and here.
On comparing the original artwork with the photo shared in the post, it is confirmed that the image shared in the post is an edited one. The ‘Reporter magazine’ artwork was edited with an unknown red book.
To sum it up, an old advertising agency artwork is shared as a recent artwork of Afghan graffiti artist Shamsia Hassani.