Artist Andrei Molodkin threatens to destroy works by Picasso and Rembrandt if Assange dies

Last week, the United Nations asked the United Kingdom not to hand over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States for fear that he could be held incommunicado, suffer torture-like abuse and risk a sentence of up to 175 years in prison. Assange created WikiLeaks in 2006 and used it to publish sensitive documents, including material provided in 2010 by Chelsea Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst who supplied WikiLeaks with dicentinaia of thousands of classified documents in what is believed to be the largest unauthorized disclosure of state secrets in U.S. history. The journalist has been held in Belmarsh Prison in London for the past five years, but the United States is seeking him for alleged violations of the Espionage Act, and although the United Kingdom approved extradition in June 2022, it is now considering a request to detain the journalist.

To raise awareness of the issue, there are several initiatives that the art world is putting in place. Beginning with the action of Russian artist Andrei Molodkin, class of 1966, known for his highly political art(here is our interview with Molodkin) who said he placed 16 important artworks including pieces by Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol and Jannis Kounellis as well as contemporary artists such as Andres Serrano, Jake Chapman, Santiago Serra and Molodkin himself inside a 32-ton secure room. The works, valued at $45 million, are being held as hostages. Molodkin has not let on what the works are, but only said they would be donated to him. One confirmation comes from well-known Milanese art dealer Giampaolo Abbondio, with whom Molodkin works, who donated a Picasso to the artist (“It’s more important for the world to have an Assange than an extra Picasso, so I decided to accept Molodkin’s offer to participate],” said Abbondio. “Let’s say I’m optimistic and I lent it. If Assange goes free I can get it back. Picasso’s value can range from 10 thousand to 100 million, but I don’t think it’s the number of zeros that makes it more relevant when we’re talking about a human life.”)

Should Assange die in custody, it is the journalist’s own death that will trigger the destruction of the works, in an action called Dead man’s switch. Inside the safe, Molodkin says he has stored a corrosive substance that can trigger a chemical reaction to destroy the paintings. The triggering device is connected to a 24-hour timer, which must be constantly reset by someone in close proximity to Assange to confirm his survival. If the timer reaches zero, the works will disappear forever. If not, they will be returned to their donors. Dead Man’s Switch is conceived as a conceptual work, not an act of political activism. Through the project, the artist hopes to represent our time through one person’s life, fragments of art history and a destructive element.

Molodkin said he does not believe the works will actually be destroyed. “I’m not trying to destroy the art, and I don’t think I will have to,” the artist told the Guardian. “I believe Assange will be free and all the collectors and artists who have donated their works have done so because they believe he will not die in prison. ”What Molodkin is trying to do, if anything, is to spark a discussion about why “destroying people’s lives means nothing but destroying art is a huge taboo in the world. When we have so much violence and war, like in Ukraine, Gaza and everywhere, we need freedom of speech and freedom of expression so that people understand what is going on. One of the most prominent examples is Julian Assange. He is in prison just for the material he published. He has changed the history of journalism and information. He has changed the world. Personally for me there was a world before him and there is a world after him.”

Assange’s wife, Stella, says the project asks the question, “which is the bigger taboo: destroying art or destroying human life? The real goal here is not just Julian Assange, but the public’s right to know, and to be able to hold power accountable,” Stella Assange told Sky News. “If democracy wins, art will be preserved, as will Julian’s life.”

Molodkin’s project, however, is not the only outreach proposal moved toward the Assange case. Wikileaks in collaboration with the London-based a/political foundation and the German foundation Wau Holland, organized an exhibition in support of the controversial leaks and the classified information sharing site WikiLeaks. Last year’s States of Violence exhibition, from March 24, 2023 to April 8, 2023 in London, brought together the work of leading artists and agitators, revealing forms of government oppression. States of Violence embodied the struggle for freedom of expression in the current era, revealing classified government messages and confidential media documents, never before accessible in print form in the UK. Works created by renowned artists such as Ai Weiwei, Dread Scott, and The Vivienne Foundation sought to reveal the darker truths of our contemporary reality. Although many of the works in the exhibition responded to physical violence exercised by various states, the exhibition emphasized that there are also invisible methods of silencing opposition and that these techniques pose the greatest threat to freedom of expression. The exhibition was also attended by some of Assange’s most prominent supporters from across the U.K. Jeremy Corbyn, an MP and former leader of the British Labour Party, emphasized the importance of art in communicating the truth and giving voice to crucial issues. He highlighted a series of carefully bound books, 66 in total, that represent only a small fraction of the material that emerged from Cablegate, one of the biggest WikiLeaks leaks of 2010-2011. Responding to questions about the relationship between whistleblowing, democracy and art, Corbyn argued that artists and poets play a key role in communicating truth in unique ways. Citing in particular his fondness for Picasso’s Guernica (1937), which depicts the Basque city after being bombed during the country’s civil war, Corbyn placed the State of Violence exhibition within a broader battle for truth and representation in the 21st century. Also present at the opening of the exhibition were Joseph Farrell, a journalist and ambassador for WikiLeaks, as well as Chloe Schlosberg, director of the Wau Holland Foundation, the German nonprofit whose stated mission is to support the kind of activities in which WikiLeaks continues to engage.

Assange himself also debuted in the art world through a joint venture with Pak, the anonymous digital artist considered one of the leading experts on Nft-format art. The collaboration between the two raised over $54 million through their NFT Censored collection, which debuted on Feb. 7, 2022. The proceeds went to support Assange’s legal fees as he fights pending extradition from London to the United States. More than 10,000 Julian Assange supporters then joined AssangeDAO, a blockchain organization, to fund the 48-hour online auction for Clock, an NFT that counts the days since Assange’s arrest in April 2019. It raised $52 million, making it the second most expensive NFT artwork after Beeple’s Everydays-The First 5000 Days. The auction also included an open-edition NFT where each participant could create a censored work. In total, 29,766 buyers paid $2.1 million, breaking the previous record. Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s father, has stepped up efforts to gain his freedom after the U.K. High Court approved his extradition.

Artist Andrei Molodkin threatens to destroy works by Picasso and Rembrandt if Assange dies

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