By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A Montana woman armed with a crowbar entered a Loveland, Colorado museum and destroyed a controversial art exhibit that showed Jesus engaged in sex acts.
The Denver Post is reporting that 56 year-old Kathleen Folden of Kalispell, Montana entered the Loveland Museum/Gallery on Wednesday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. She headed straight for the exhibit by Stanford University’s Enrique Chagoya, entitled “The Misadventures of Romantic Cannibals” which includes a print depicting Jesus in a sex act.
Witnesses say that after looking at the print, the woman cried out, “How can you desecrate my Lord” and started hammering on the plexiglass case with a crowbar. When the case broke open, she pulled out the print and tore it up.
Art dealer Mark Michaels told Denver’s 9News that he ran over to try and stop the woman, but “by the time I got there she had reached in and grabbed the print and was ripping it up, so I pulled her away from the print and put her in the corner and then the police came.”
Bud Shark, who assembled the display for the museum, denounced the attack in a statement and blamed the press for inciting the public against the exhibit.
“(The attack) is the direct result of the inflammatory and false descriptions of the piece in the press and by those protesting its inclusion in our exhibition,” he said. “The controversial image has been demonized as ‘pornographic,’ ‘obscene’ and ‘depicting Jesus in a sex act’ when none of this is true.”
Apparently, most people disagree with his evaluation, including town officials.
Loveland City Councilman Daryle Klassen called the artwork “smut” and initially called for it to be removed, then settled for having a sign posted that warned of its explicit nature. Klassen said that he has received more than 1,700 e-mails criticizing the piece. Earlier this week, 200 people showed up at a City Council meeting to demand that the piece be removed.
“I’d say the response has been 100-to-1 in support of getting rid of it,” Klassen told the Post.
The Archdiocese of Denver also weighed in before the attack, supporting protestors of the exhibit. “They believe that taxpayers’ dollars should not be going to pornography,” said Jeanette De Melo.
Officials say the exhibit was donated for free and no tax dollars were used.
Meanwhile, the artist, Professor Chagoya, defended his “art” by saying he produced the image as a commentary on the child abuse committed by priests.
“My work is about critiquing institutions and politics,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to portray Christ; it’s a collage of cutouts from different books.”
Speaking by telephone to the Post after the attack, Chagoya called the incident “sad and upsetting. I’ve never had this kind of violent reaction to my art. Violence doesn’t resolve anything.”
Folden was taken into custody on a charge of criminal mischief, a Class 4 felony with a fine of up to $2,000.
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