This shark painting on a rock is in Goa, India.
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 16, 2019 at 08:30
- 3 min read
- By AFP Sri Lanka
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The photo of the painted rock was posted here on Facebook on December 5, 2019, where it has been shared more than 2,000 times.
Below is a screenshot of the Facebook post:
The Sinhala text in the image, translated to English, reads: "You thought it was a shark, right? No, this is a painting done by a group of our boys on a rock in Jungle beach"
The post’s caption reads: “?Our boys"
The claim that the painting is on Jungle beach, which is roughly 140 kilometers south of the capital Colombo, was also posted on Facebook here and here.
But the claim is false; the painting is actually located in Goa, a southern state in India, and was completed by an American artist.
A reverse Google image search of the photo led to this article published on February 12, 2018 titled “Graffiti Artist Transforms a Beach Rock Into a Great White Shark”, which features an image identical to the photograph in the misleading post.
Below is a screenshot of the article:
The shark was spray painted on the rock by American artist Jimmy Swift in March 2015 and is located at Palolem Beach in Goa, according to the report.
The article also links to Swift’s Instagram account, where he posted the same photo here on March 7, 2017.
The photo, Swift’s caption states, was taken after he repainted the rock following two years of fading.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the misleading post (R) and Swift’s instagram post (L):
In addition, Swift posted a photo of the art piece on Instagram here on March 7, 2015 after he painted the rock for the first time. The post is geotagged to Palolem Beach..
“This was the hardest thing I've ever painted. I was literally beat up by the waves and rising tide and forced to stop before it was finished,” Swift wrote in the post’s caption. “When I first saw this rock it looked like a perfect place for a great white. Hopefully it doesn't scare the sh** out of people!”
The shark painting is also featured in Swift’s official website, as seen in the screenshot below:
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