Gallery loses head, displays plinth (Reuters) Updated: 2006-06-16 08:33
 A bronze
statue entitled 'The Virgin mother' by artist Damien Hirst is displayed in
the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts in central London as part of
its 238th Summer Exhibition June 7, 2006.
[Reuters] |
One of Britain's most prestigious art galleries put a block of slate on
display, topped by a small piece of wood, in the mistaken belief it was a work
of art.
The Royal Academy included the chunk of stone and the small bone-shaped
wooden stick in its summer exhibition in London.
But the slate was actually a plinth -- a slab on which a pedestal is placed
-- and the stick was designed to prop up a sculpture. The sculpture itself -- of
a human head -- was nowhere to be seen.
"I think the things got separated in the selection process and the selectors
presented the plinth as a complete sculpture," the work's artist David Hensel
told BBC radio.
The academy explained the error by saying the plinth and the head were sent
to the exhibitors separately.
"Given their separate submission, the two parts were judged independently,"
it said in a statement. "The head was rejected. The base was thought to have
merit and accepted.
"The head has been safely stored ready to be collected by the artist," it
added. "It is accepted that works may not be displayed in the way that the
artist might have intended."
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