Oslo’s Munch Museum confirmed on Monday that a portion of its current controversial exhibit, which draws ties between the work of Norwegian artists Edvard Munch and Bjarne Melgaard, had been reported to the police. Newspaper Aftenposten reported that it remained unclear who had filed the complaint with the police.
“We are aware that a complaint has been filed,” Stein Olav Henrichsen, director of the Munch Museum, told Aftenposten. He said the complaint involved a 40-minute video entitled All Gym Queens Deserve to Die. He insisted the museum had conducted a “thorough evaluation” of the work before it was exhibited.
The Melgaard + Munch exhibit that opened earlier this year has attracted both praise, criticism and complaints, not least from Edvard Munch’s descendants who until recently controlled the use of his art. The exhibit is said to be too sexually charged, with works of the contemporary Melgaard allegedly paired inappropriately with Munch’s art in ways that Munch’s family feels cheapens Munch’s work.
Others have claimed that Melgaard has benefited the most from the exhibit and the controversy around it, through sheer publicity.
newsinenglish.no staff