Art Controversies

BBC News has posted a slide show of art controversies of 2012 (CLICK). It includes the Pussy Riot trial and Madonna's gun-toting gigs, neither of which I covered as I don't view them as art. I covered all the rest. Two major art controversies of 2012 Auntie has missed are the Nude Men exhibition at the Leopold Museum in Vienna (CLICK) and the litigation over the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull in the USA (CLICK). Shown is Moneybags Hirst's Verity, a 65ft-high bronze sculpture of a half-flayed pregnant nude with upraised sword. The 25-tonne monster is on a 20-year loan to Ilfracombe in Devon, where Moneybags lives. Will it perk up sales in his fish-and-chip shop ... er ... café? Will verdigris improve the monster?