"Porn" Art Sparks EU Storm

Controversial images from an art project promoting Austria's EU presidency were removed by organisers after a storm of protest. The work by Spain's Carlos Aires, showing three people writhing naked while wearing masks of Bush, Chirac and the British monarch, had been condemned as pornographic by opposition politicians and Catholic clerics. The poster, along with another piece showing a woman sprawled, legs apart, wearing nothing except panties bearing the European flag, have been removed from the "Europart" project. The contentious images were among a series of 148 being flashed on billboards around Vienna and Salzburg ahead of Austria's turn at the rotating EU presidency, which begins on January 1. Those in charge of the project, involving 75 artists from around the European Union's 25 members, however, defended their right to artistic freedom.
Irish Art

Art Sellout For 6 Year Old

Edward Simpson has become the youngest artist to have his work displayed at the British Watercolour Society’s exhibition — aged SIX. The youngster — who comes from a family of talented painters — was asked to display four works called Dog, Cat, Sheep and Grandad. And amazingly Edward was the only one of the 275 artists showing their work at the exhibition to sell every painting. Each went for £50. Teachers first discovered Edward’s natural skills when he was just four. But the quality of his work came as no surprise to relations — as there have been artists in their family since the 17th Century. His dad Nigel Simpson, 38, was commissioned to paint the Queen Mother aged 13.
Irish Art



Killer Art Rat "Exhibition"

The USPCA today lifted the lid on a sick "art" show involving the suffocation of 90 rats in a display case in a house in Belfast. The animal welfare charity is furious at a decision by the authorities not to prosecute the individual behind the stunt. It has now gone public on the case, which dates back almost a year, in a bid to get answers on the lack of court action. The USPCA revealed that it was tipped off about the bizarre display by a disgusted member of the public. It obtained a printed art gallery style invitation inviting people to attend the spectacle in a terrace house in the Ravenhill Avenue area of east Belfast.
Irish Art

Art Resale Law Pays Artists

Thousands of poorly paid artists will be better off next year because of a regulation that will give them a share of the proceeds when their art is resold. From next month, any art dealer, gallery or museum that buys an original work from the artists and resells it for more than €1,000 (about £680) will have to pay the artist a royalty.
Irish Art

Police Nab Pensioner's Looted Art

Italian police have seized nearly 9,000 ancient artefacts from a 74-year-old pensioner who sold looted antiquities at a flea market in Rome. Police stopped the man on Monday night and found three bags full of Etruscan and Roman pieces in his car. They also searched his house where they discovered a laboratory to clean and restore the antiquities, as well as what they described as the classic tomb raider's kit, including three metal detectors. Among the 8,972 pieces seized were ancient terracotta vases, amphorae, masks, clay and bronze statues and parts of marble columns. The man, whose name was not given, used to sell bric-a-brac at Rome's popular Porta Portese market. But customers in the know were offered much more prized samples from a collection "worthy of an archaeology museum".
Irish Art

Art Snails In The Slimelight

For the past six weeks, nothing at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has been quite so attention grabbing as a vitrine containing two heads of cabbage and about 20 brown snails. This is the big time for snails with art world aspirations, being part of a major work at a high profile museum. Ann Hamilton's 1989 "Palimpsest" is a room size installation that also features handwritten notes on yellowed newsprint pinned to the walls and encased in beeswax floor tiles.
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Irish Art