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M Sculpture at Heart of Romanian National Identity Waits To Section:GDN BE PaGe:20 Edition Date:150224 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 23/2/2015 19:37 cYanmaGentaYellowblack 20 * The Guardian | Tuesday 24 February 2015 International Pegida brings £ m sculpture at heart of Romanian back leader who quit after national identity waits to hear her fate Hitler furore State’s refusal to say if it wants to buy Brâncusi work Ben Knight Berlin leaves owners in limbo The former head of Germany’s anti- Islamisation movement Pegida has been reinstated a month after resigning over Kit Gillet B u c h a r e s t a photo showing him posing with a Hit- ler moustache . The group con! rmed on The woman, carved from limestone, sits its Facebook page that Lutz Bachmann, with her arms resting on her pulled-up 42, had been re-elected as chairman on legs and looks enigmatically ahead. She Sunday by the six other members of the is regarded as one of Romania’s ! nest organisation’s leadership committee. modernist artworks , yet the Bucharest Sächsische Zeitung reported last week government’s refusal to say whether that the moustache had been added after it wants to buy her has left the €20m the photo was taken – though Bachmann (£15m) sculpture in a murky legal limbo, did not mention this when the photo and its owners unable to sell. went viral . “No one would have believed The statue, The Wisdom of the Earth me at that moment,” he told the Guard- by Constantin Brâncuși, has a history ian yesterday. “All the media in the world that re$ ects the tumult in its creator’s reported it. On the original photo, I did not native land. First sold in 1911, it was have a moustache. Since then, it has been con! scated by the communists in 1957 revealed as a forgery but, in that moment, and became the subject of a lengthy it simply wasn’t possible to refute it and, legal battle after the fall of the dictator in order to avoid damage, I stepped down Nicolae Ceaușescu, ending in 2008 with – but only as chairman. I never left the it returned to the family of its original organisation.” owner. Bachmann also stressed that he should The latest instalment began in not be considered a leader of the group. September 2014 when the family “There is a club . There are seven members announced it was putting Brâncuși’s and each person has the same power,” he statue, his most celebrated work still in said. “The board chairman post is just Romania, up for sale. because German law requires a board As an artwork considered a national chairman on paper for any club. ” treasure, Romania has a right to ! rst The picture of Bachmann went viral refusal should it wish to keep the after it was published by Dresden Mor- Brâncuși out the hands of a foreign genpost, a local newspaper. A Morgenpost gallery or collector . But by failing to reader who saw the photograph found Year the work was Lutz Bachmann, confi scated by chairman of Pegida, the communists. an anti-Islamisation Eventually, after a group, said the legal battle, it went 1957 Hitler moustache on back to the original his photograph had owner’s family been added later o% cially respond or enter into meaning- what appeared to be a closed Facebook ful negotiations, those involved in the conversation between Bachmann and a sale say the Romanian state has in e& ect Facebook contact , in which he described blocked the legal owners from selling to immigrants as cattle , scumbags and trash . anyone else. Pegida has been holding weekly dem- International galleries such as the onstrations in Dresden since October Tate Modern, which owns four Brâncuși against what it perceives as the Islamisa- sculptures , are unlikely to push ahead tion of Europe . The protests have attracted while legal uncertainties exist. international media attention and crowds “If you want to sell a work of art that of 17,000 at one point . Associated rallies is a national treasure, the state has a have taken place in other German cities, pre-emption right to buy, but it must but the leadership has been dogged by give an answer within 30 days of noti- in! ghting. The controversy over the photo ! cation,” said Bogdan Grabowski, the and Bachmann’s Facebook comments w as lawyer acting for the Romascu family, seen as particularly damaging. the sculpture’s owners. “Until now the Bachmann’s resignation in January was state hasn’t proposed a certain sum or followed by an exodus of leading mem- asserted that it is willing to take its pre- bers, apparently in an attempt to distance emption rights.” themselves from openly racist supporters. Brâncuși, who spent much of his life The most prominent departure was that of living in Paris, is considered Romania’s Kathrin Oertel, who split from the group most important artist, and his sculp- a week after Bachmann’s resignation to tures change hands for up to €26 m. The found a new rightwing organisation called Wisdom of the Earth is considered one The Wisdom of the di% cult situation in Romania in ing works it is possible that in the near Direkte Demokratie 'ür Europa . of his de! ning works. the Earth is seen r elation to the mmany works of art con- future you won’t have anything to look Bachmann, who carries convictions for Alexandru Baldea, managing part- as one of the ! scated byy thet former communist at,” she told those present, according to drug possession, assault and burglary, has ner of Artmark, the Romanian auction de! ning works regime.regime. Romanian media. continued to speak at Pegida demonstra- house charged with selling the piece, by Constantin RoxanaRoxana Theodorescu, the direc- Many believe that the Romanian state tions in Dresden. At last week’s event, he said: “The truth is that it is an iconic Brâncuși, right tortor of ththee NNational Museum of doesn’t have the funds available to buy imitated the 16th century church reformer sculpture for Romanians; it’s an iconic Photograph: Art ofof Romania,Rom told MPs in Janu- the sculpture, despite earlier comments Martin Luther and nailed 10 “theses” to image that is present in all the books Daniel ary that sincesini 2000 the National made by the then minister of culture, the door of Dresden’s Kreuzkirche church. about our national identity. The state Mihailescu/AFP/ MuseumMuseum hadh returned 2,000 works Kelemen Hunor, who last September In the same Facebook post announcing used it a lot in its cultural propaganda Getty Images of artart to their original owners, told Romanian media that if the price Bachmann’s reinstatement, Pegida also and transformed it into an icon of the andannd that in the near future was right the authorities needed to ! nd welcomed Tatjana Festerling, a former Romanian soul . itit wouldw be returning 253 the money in the budget. member of the eurosceptic Alternative “Legally we’re allowed to sell it. But more,mom with several hundred The Wisdom of the Earth was origi- for Germany party who attracted criticism as a matter of fact we cannot sell it. Basi- othersoth under litigation. nally purchased in 1911 by Gheorghe last year for praising the Hooligans Against cally we are obliged to wait for an o% - “I invite you to visit Romascu, a Romanian engineer and art Sala! sts demonstration in Cologne. Num- cial response from the state.” ourouo museum as quickly as lover. The Romanian ministry of culture bers at recent demonstrations in Dresden The challenges surrounding the sale possiblepo because with the did not respond to repeated interview have dwindled from 17,000 in January to of The Wisdom of the Earth underscore frequencyfr we are return- requests for this article. about 2,000 in the past two weeks. .
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