Historian Condemns Statue Theft

Eiríkur Þorláksson, an art historian, has published a column in Fréttablaðið about the bronze statue theft we have extensively covered last week, as a work entitled “Carry-On: The First White Mother in Outer Space”. The historian calls for artists to agree not to rob, damage or humiliate artworks in any way.

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Eiríkur says it is arrogant to steal a piece of art from Snæfellsnes and place it illegally inside a new work in Reykjavík: “​​There are women artists stealing another artist’s work of art in order to make it part of their own work. Ironically, they could have achieved their success by simply inserting a photograph of the work into their own work and therefore would not have had to become art thieves to perfect the message they were trying to evoke.” Eiríkur calls this type of behaviour “a new kind of capital arrogance”.

He wants the artists’ association to agree that this is not the way to do things: “If they can not create their artwork without possibly damaging, robbing and or humiliating the work of others, then they have to look for better ideas.”