Art Hostages for Julian Assange
We’ve covered stories on here about people stealing art to be used as leverage to release people from jail or secure bail and you might think this is a similar situation. Well, my answer to that is yes and no.
Julian Assange
I’m going to do some very brief background on Julian Assange before we dive into it. I’m sure almost everyone reading knows who he is and some of his high-profile activities but just so we’re all on the same page here. This is going to be a super high-level overview so I won’t be going into all the details but if you want to research Assange on your own there is a lot out there.
Assange is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He’s most well known for the 2010 publication, on WikiLeaks, of U.S. army intelligence including footage of an airstrike in Baghdad, military logs from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and U.S. diplomatic messages.
In November 2010, following this publication, the Swedish government issued a European arrest warrant for Assange. It was actually for an unrelated accusation of sexual offences, but Assange thought that this was kind of a cover to just arrest him and have him extradited to the US. (Let’s be clear, I’m not excusing him of these sexual allegations at ALL). So he fled Sweden and went to London. On November 30th, 2010 Interpol posted a Red Notice and put Assange on its most wanted list. He was arrested and then later released on bail in London.
In June 2012 Assange breached his bail conditions and officially applied for political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. An office in the building was converted to a mini studio apartment for Assange with a kitchenette, bed, phone, treadmill, computer, sunlamp, and shower. He only ate food that he could get through takeout or that the embassy staff prepared for him. The UK government tried to come inside and arrest him but, because of international agreements, they couldn’t. So members of the Metropolitan Police Service were stationed outside the embassy doors from June 2012 to October 2015 saying they would arrest and detain Assange if he stepped foot outside, which he didn’t. In 2015 the officers were withdrawn from the grounds due to the cost of just having them there (£12.6 million over that period).
Assange remained in the embassy until April 11, 2019. Ecuador revoked his asylum over many different disputes and even though they had granted him citizenship in 2017. The Metropolitan police were invited into the building and they arrested Assange for breaching his bail. Then, once he was arrested the US government unsealed an indictment charging Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion related to the US military leaks. In 2019 and 2020 new indictments were unsealed charging him with violating the espionage act of 1917 and alleging that he conspired with hackers. Assange has been incarcerated in HM Prison Belmarsh in London since April 2019 and the US is actively trying to extradite him, though the process is being held up in the UK courts.
That’s a lot. And you’re probably thinking, what does this have to do with art?? Let’s talk about that.
What This Has to do With Art
People in London and all over the world have been extremely concerned for Assange’s safety and well-being now that he’s in jail and could be extradited to the US. The UN even came out in February of this year (2024) to urge the UK not to allow this to happen because of fears that he would be detained in solitary confinement, submitted to ill-treatment (read: torture), and sentenced to 175 years in prison. However, people were afraid that not many people around the world were paying attention to this issue and that the US would just quietly take Assange and mistreat him.
So one artist came up with an idea. To raise awareness about this issue, Russian artist Andrei Molodkin is holding incredibly valuable and important art hostage. Molodkin works in Cauterets, a small town in southwest France in a huge decommissioned sanatorium that he bought a few years ago. In the front entrance, he has installed a massive (32-tonne, 13x9 foot) Swedish bank safe. The safe is so big that it had to be brought into the building in pieces and assembled in the hall, overseen by two security advisors.
Inside this safe live sixteen works of art by important artists like Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol, Serrano, Sierra, and Lucas. A collection that Molodkin says is worth about $40 million. Also in the safe is a small pneumatic pump connecting two white barrels, one barrel holds acid powder and the other an accelerator that, if triggered, could cause a chemical reaction so strong that everything within the safe would turn basically to dust within 2 hours. Molodkin also says that collectors all over the world are still offering to donate their works of art to this project that he has named, Dead Man’s Switch.
The dead man in question here is Assange. Molodkin says that only if Assange is released as a free man and not extradited to the US will the paintings be returned to their owners. In the event that Assange should die in prison or the decision is made to extradite him, the trigger for the chemical reaction within the safe will be triggered. Molodkin said, “in our time to destroy art is much more taboo than destroying the life of people” (Lawson-Tancred, 2024).
It gets a little complicated, however, because after Assange’s trial in February 2024, the UK court ordered a delay in their decision, and therefore a delay in Assange’s possible extradition. They said that the extradition to the US could go ahead if Assange’s case was fully protected by the First Amendment and that he would not face the death penalty. In response, the US attorneys said that the First Amendment may not apply to Assange since he’s not an American citizen, and the UK responded that in that case, the extradition will not happen.
So things are still at a standstill and these incredible paintings are still sitting in Molodkin’s safe, hoping to protect Assange’s life.
Works Cited
Beard, Nadia. “The Artist Holding Valuable Art Hostage to Protect Julian Assange”. The New Yorker. 2024. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-artist-holding-valuable-art-hostage-to-protect-julian-assange
Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “$45 Million Worth of Art is Being Held Hostage for Julian Assange’s Life”. ArtNet News. 2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/julian-assange-andrei-molodkin-2433258
Reevell, Patrick and Kevin Shalvey. “Julian Assange Extradition Delayed by UK Court, Allowing Time for Appeal”. ABC News. 2024. https://abcnews.go.com/International/julian-assange-extradition-delayed-uk-court-allowing-time/story?id=107340905