A French artist has announced plans to use acid to destroy up to $45 million worth of art, including works by Rembrandt, Picasso and Andy Warhol, if WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dies in prison. .
Andrei Molodkin has 16 works of art donated to him stored in a 29-ton safe along with a “highly corrosive” substance, British news outlet Sky News reported.
Molodkin, a Russian dissident, said that inside the vault there are boxes containing art objects, as well as an air pump connecting two white barrels, one containing acid powder and the other. claimed that it contained an accelerator and could cause chemical reactions powerful enough to spin art objects. Into the rubble.
The final hearing in the case challenging the extradition of Assange from the UK to the US on charges of disclosing classified US military documents will be held at London’s High Court on February 20th and 21st. After exhausting all his legal appeals, Assange will go on trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and could be sentenced to up to 175 years in a maximum-security prison in the United States.
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Andrei Molodkin says he plans to use acid to destroy up to $45 million worth of art, including works by Rembrandt, Picasso and Andy Warhol, if Julian Assange dies in prison. (AP)
Until Assange, no publisher had been charged under the Espionage Act, but many press freedom groups argue that his prosecution sets a dangerous precedent aimed at criminalizing journalism. . U.S. prosecutors and Assange’s critics argue that WikiLeaks’ release of classified material endangers the lives of U.S. allies, but there is no evidence that anyone was put at risk by releasing the documents. There isn’t.
Editors and publishers of U.S. and European news organizations who helped publish excerpts from more than 250,000 documents obtained by Assange in the Cablegate leaks – The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Elle・Pais – wrote an open letter In 2022, he called on the US to drop the charges against Assange.
Mr Molodkin’s project, known as “Dead Man’s Switch,” is supported by Mr Assange’s wife Stella.
The announcement of the project comes after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Gilles Edwards, said last week that Assange’s extradition would be at risk of being subjected to torture or other forms of treatment. This comes after the UK government was asked to halt the possibility of Treatment or punishment?
Additionally, a group of Australian MPs last month wrote to British Home Secretary James Cleverley, calling for a halt to the extradition citing concerns for Assange’s safety and well-being, and instead asking the British government to address Assange’s persecution. It called for an independent assessment of the risks.
Assange’s British lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, previously said she feared Assange “would not survive if extradited to the United States”.
“In these devastating times with so many wars, destroying art is much more taboo than destroying human life,” Molodkin told Sky News.
“Since Julian Assange went to prison, freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of information have begun to be increasingly suppressed,” he continued. I feel that feeling very strongly right now.
Assange, 52, faces 17 charges under the Espionage Act for allegedly receiving, possessing and transmitting classified information to the public and one charge alleging conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. .
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The project, called ‘Dead Man’s Switch’, has the support of Assange’s wife Stella. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
The charges stem from WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of leaked cables by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning detailing war crimes committed by the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba. , initiated by the Trump administration’s Justice Department. The document also exposes cases of CIA torture and coercion.
WikiLeaks’ “collateral murder” video, which showed U.S. forces shooting civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters reporters, was also released 14 years ago.
Australian publisher Assange has been held in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since April 11, 2019, when he was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy for breaching his bail conditions. He had applied for asylum at the embassy since 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden on charges of raping two women. Sweden has not provided any guarantees to protect him from extradition to the United States. The investigation into the sexual assault charges was ultimately closed.
Molodkin declined to reveal what art is in the safe, but it includes works by Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol, Jasper Johns, Yanis Kounellis, Robert Rauschenberg and Sarah. It said it includes works by Lucas, Santiago Sierra and Jake Chapman. Molodkin said his own artwork is also in the safe.
“I believe that if something happens and erases a masterpiece, it is erased from history. No one knows what kind of work it was,” Molodkin said. “We have all the documentation and we took pictures of everything.”
The safe kept in Molodkin’s studio in the south of France will be locked on Friday, but he plans to move it to a museum.
Molodkin explained that the “dead man’s switch” works by requiring a 24-hour countdown timer to be reset before reaching zero to prevent corrosive substances from being released into the vault. did. He said the timer would be reset each day someone close to Assange confirmed in prison that he was still alive.
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The final appeal hearing challenging Assange’s extradition from the UK to the US will be held at London’s High Court on February 20th and 21st. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
Molodkin said the artwork would be returned to its owner once Assange is released from prison.
He said many collectors were concerned that acid could be accidentally spilled, but insisted the work had been carried out “very professionally”.
Molodkin said he would “not feel any emotion” if art was destroyed because “freedom is much more important.”
Giampaolo Abbondio, who owns an art gallery in Milan, said he provided Picasso’s work for the project and signed a non-disclosure agreement barring which works would be shown to the public. He said that when Mr. Molodkin asked him to participate, he initially said, “No way,” but that Mr. Molodkin was able to change his mind.
“I came to the conclusion that it would be more meaningful to the world to have one more Assange than one more Picasso, and I accepted it,” Abbondio said. “Let’s say I’m an optimist and I loaned it. If Assange is released, I can get it back.”
“Picasso is worth anywhere from $10,000 to $100 million, but I don’t think the number of zeros can be more meaningful when you’re talking about human life,” he continued.
Artist Franco B. also revealed that he had donated the work to be kept in the safe, calling it a “beautiful work” and “one of my best works.”
“I thought it was important to work on things that I care about. I didn’t donate something I found in the corner of my studio. I donated works that are very dear to me, which speak about freedom and censorship. I did,” he said. “That’s important. It’s a small act compared to what Assange has done and what he’s going through.”
Until Assange, no publisher had been charged under the Espionage Act, but many press freedom groups argue that his prosecution sets a dangerous precedent aimed at criminalizing journalism. . (FOX News Digital/Landon Mion)
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In 2013, the Obama administration chose not to prosecute Assange over WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of confidential cables. This is because journalists at major news organizations who published the same material also needed to be prosecuted. In January 2017, former President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence for violating the Espionage Act to seven years, and Manning, who had been in prison since 2010, was released later that year.
However, the Justice Department under former President Donald Trump later moved to indict Assange under the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration continues to prosecute him.
Last year, a bipartisan delegation of Australian lawmakers visited Washington, D.C., and met with U.S. officials, members of Congress and civil rights groups to demand that the charges against Assange be dropped.multiple bipartisan effort US lawmakers calling for Assange’s freedom issued a similar statement last year.
Last year, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also repeatedly called on the US to stop prosecuting Assange.
