Gallery owner beaten for showing political art - Russia

According to the Moscow Times (!):

"Ultranationalists donning heavy boots and knit caps stormed one of the city's best known art galleries Saturday, beating owner Marat Gelman and destroying paintings by the Georgian-born artist Alexander Dzhikia.

[...]

"On Sunday, Gelman dismissed the suggestion that there might be a tie between Saturday's attack and the Friday detention of the artworks at Sheremetyevo-2 airport heading from his gallery.

Matthew Bown of the Matthew Bown Gallery in London was transporting the 11 pieces of art from the Guelman Gallery for a London show when he was ordered off his plane and questioned by police at the airport, the gallery said in a statement posted on its web site.

Officials confiscated the artwork, telling Bown he had been detained because several of the pieces "contain representations of heads of state," the gallery statement said." [Brown was allowed to leave Russia later, but without the paintings.]

Gelman is up on charges as well, because (from the TimesOnline.co.uk)

"His gallery was visited on Friday by Customs officials, who confiscated caricatures on display of President Putin, President Bush and Osama bin Laden. The works were due to be exhibited in London.

One photo collage showed the three men lying together on a couch wearing only boxer shorts and socks. Mr Guelman said that officials had told him that they were considering a criminal prosecution for insulting the President of Russia."

[Kind of makes your hair stand on end, doesn't it? They are threatening to arrest the gallery owner beause of someone else's dangerous paintings. Paintings were killed by ultranationalists! Wherever ideas are illegal, they become extremely important. Be very happy if your country lets you paint or talk about whatever you want -- it's a right we all have to fight in order to get or to keep. - Susan ]