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HITLER

Italian artist sells contentious Adolf Hitler statue for €15m

A provocative statue of the German dictator Adolf Hitler by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has sold at auction for €15.1 million.

Italian artist sells contentious Adolf Hitler statue for €15m
Maurizio Cattelan's 'Him', a statue of Adolf Hitler, sold at auction for €15.1 million. Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP

Called 'Him', the wax and resin statue depicts Hitler as a schoolboy, kneeling in prayer and dressed in a grey wool suit, Rai News reported.

Before going under the hammer on Monday at Christie's in New York, the piece had been expected to make around two thirds of its final price.

“There was a lot of interest in the piece thanks to its ability to break the boundaries between art and popular culture,” Rai news reported the auction's curator, Loic Gouzer, as saying.

The statue is now the artist's most expensive work, beating his previous record of €5.46 million set by 'Untitled' – a statue of Cattelan peeking up through the floor, which sold at auction in 2001.


'Untitled' by Cattelan sold in 2001 for €5.46 million. Photo: Astrid Westrang/Flickr

Originally from the Venetian city of Padua, the 55-year-old began his artistic career as a furniture maker in Forlì, Emilia-Romagna, in the 1980s and began submitting artwork to galleries shortly afterwards.


Cattelan's 'La Nona Ora' (The Ninth Hour) shows Pope John Paul II being struck by a meteor. Photo: Mark B. Schelmmer/Flickr

He is known for his highly provocative and controversial works, which include a life-size statue of Pope John Paul II being struck by a meteorite and 'L.O.V.E' – a giant hand showing the middle finger to anybody who passes in front of Milan's stock exchange.


'L.O.V.E' stands outside Milan's Borsa (stock exchange). Photo: Jaqueline Poggi/Flickr

Cattelan's latest work, entitled 'America', will soon go on display at the Guggenheim museum in New York. The piece will be an 18-carat-gold public toilet, which visitors will be able to use.

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STATUE

Denmark’s top art school head sacked over royal bust stunt

The head of Denmark's top art school has been sacked over the drowning of a bust of a former king in a Copenhagen canal, the culture ministry said Monday.

Denmark's top art school head sacked over royal bust stunt
The bust of King Frederik V after being thrown into Copenhagen Harbour in November. Photo: Philip Davali/Ritzau Scanpix

Artist Katrine Dirckinck-Holmfeld lost her job when she took a replica bust of the 18th-century monarch Frederik V from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, where she was employed, and dumped it to draw attention to the country's colonial past and its involvement in the slave trade, especially in modern day Ghana.

The action, which she called a “happening,” was initially carried out anonymously. Dirckinck-Holmfeld was removed from her post the day she came forward as the responsible party.

The scandal on Monday claimed the scalp of the Academy's director Kirsten Langkilde, who had sent an internal mail with a link to the video of the bust being dumped without any comment, just saying “Have a good weekend”.

“The culture ministry and Kirsten Langkilde have not been able to come to an agreement on the challenges facing the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

There is therefore the need for new energy,” Culture Minister Joy Mogensen said.

The event, which took place on November 6th, was recorded in a video and the group Anonymous Artists claimed responsibility before Dirckinck-Holmfeld stepped forward.

Anonymous Artists said the action was to show “solidarity with all the artists, students and people all over the world who have had to live with the aftermath of Danish colonialism.”

At its peak, Denmark's colonies were spread across four continents from the Danish West Indies in the modern-day US Virgin Islands, to the Danish Gold Coast, now a part of Ghana.

Its holdings also included Greenland, which remains part of Denmark, and territories in India.

READ ALSO: 'Racist fish': Little Mermaid statue vandalised in Copenhagen

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