From the Author of Sculptures of Melbourne, Mark S. Holsworth, comes The Picasso Ransom – and other stories about art and crime in Australia.
A collection of forty-five true-crime stories about the visual arts in Australia: art theft, art forgery, art censorship, art vandalism, and protest art.
The title comes from the famous artnapping of Picasso’s Weeping Woman from the National Gallery of Victoria. One of the artnapper’s demands was an art prize called the Picasso Ransom.
While that crime is famous, others stories of crimes, from the colonial to the contemporary, are not well known but equally intriguing.
Amongst them is an entire exhibition of forged Pollocks, paintings stabbed, art prosecuted as pornography, decapitated statues, and a body dumped at the forecourt of the NGV.
“I have long been interested in art crimes and have been building up a file of clippings and photocopies since I first heard Picasso’s Weeping woman was stolen from the NGV in 1986,” said Holsworth.
Mark S. Holsworth is the author of Sculptures of Melbourne, the long-running blog Black Mark, as well as articles, short stories, plays, and various hack writing jobs.
The Picasso Ransom – and other stories about art and crime in Australia will be Launched at The Woodlands Hotel, Coburg On Saturday 11 March 2023. For more information, visit: www.melbourneartcritic.wordpress.com for details.
Image: The Picasso Ransom – and other stories about art and crime in Australia – courtesy of Mark S. Holsworth