...She floats there, the Mona Lisa of mayhem, her photograph forming the sail of a little toy boat on a pool of blood. The pool is half-frozen, and the blood seeps into the pure white snow covering the courtyard garden...I would love to laugh. Because this is the stupidest story you will ever hear about art, outrage and international diplomacy.."I spoke to the museum's director and said it's not acceptable; it's inciting murder, it's the encouragement of genocide. He wouldn't close the exhibit so I said, 'I'll do it,' and I pulled the plugs of the spots out of their sockets. Then I pushed one of the spots into the pool."
Rage rose in him like a sea of blood. "An ambassador was overtaken by his feelings," as he puts it....Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, has publicly supported his ambassador, with some enthusiasm. "I think Zvi Mazel behaved in an appropriate way," Sharon announced. "I called ... and thanked him..the Israeli and American press, have found in Mazel a popular hero...Someone explains that the de-icer in the liquid hasn't worked properly, but the lumps of red ice add to the effect. Bach's Cantata 199..the bomber..The flimsy cosmetic prettiness of the picture is what jars. That lipstick.
...not listening to the music closely enough. The words of Cantata 199 ought to have alerted Mazel to the ambiguity, to say the least, of this work...Death threats have been made against the artists....perhaps not entirely displeased..He, like everyone else at the museum, believes that far from being a spontaneous outburst, the high-level "hooliganism" was planned....short-circuited when he threw one in the water. ...
Israel has demanded the removal of the exhibit. This will not happen, insists the museum, unequivocally supported by the Swedish government...ordered the ambassador to leave his museum...we have to clearly defend our constitution."...embassy may have to move...interview Mazel gave Israel radio on Monday. He said the move is part of "the general atmosphere of hostility towards Israel all around Europe - Sweden included"....and in a small museum in Stockholm, a breeze blows, and a sailboat falls over.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1128216,00.html