London Gallery Pulls Well-Known Artist, Fear of RoP Cited

Fri, Oct 6, 2006 at 7:10:52 pm PDT

Fearing Muslim rage, a London gallery has pulled the works of well-known surrealist Hans Bellmer out of an exhibition the day before it was supposed to open. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

PARIS (Reuters) - A London gallery has decided not to show some works of art because it fears they would upset Muslims, a curator said on Friday, a week after a German opera house canned a Mozart production for the same reason.

The director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery decided to remove works by surrealist artist Hans Bellmer from an exhibition the day before it was due to open, one of the museum’s curators, Agnes de la Beaumelle, told Reuters.

“The motive was simply to not shock the population of the Whitechapel neighbourhood, which is partly Muslim,” she said. The Whitechapel area in east London is home to many ethnic minorities including a large Bangladeshi community.

The gallery issued a statement saying that some works were not included in the exhibition because of space constraints but declined to comment specifically on what Beaumelle said.

Did Bellmer mock the Prophet (propellor beanie upon him)? Nope.

He was just your everyday average talented Western pervert.