These are not real Easter Island Heads, nor are they real murder weapons. But a man did use an Easter Island Head sculpture to kill his wife. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
A photo posted by Damien Hirst (@damienhirst) on Jun 23, 2015 at 9:23am PDT "Five Disks: One Empty" Alexander Calder #alotofart A photo posted by A LOT OF ART (@a_lot_of_art) on Nov 17, 2015 at 7:17am PST Advertisem*nt
A few weeks ago,news broke that two works by Damien Hirst,Mother and Child (Divided) andAway from the Flock had been leaking toxic formaldehyde gas. Researchers discovered levels of formaldehyde at five parts per million in the areas surrounding the sculptures, ten times the advisory limit. So far, no Hirst-related deaths have been reported, and hopefully the discovery will prevent any from happening. In more than a few cases, though, art has actually killed people; whether involving large-scale metal sculptures and gravity, or an impulsive, grab-the-nearest-sculpture violent rage.Richard Serra is perhaps the first artist who comes to mind on the topic of deadly art, due not only to the intimidating nature of his large-scale abstract metalworks that rely on balance and tension to stay put, but also because of the real damage caused by them. Besides anumber of crushing installation-related injuries, a 1971incident at the Walker Art Museum has become infamous. Rigger Raymond Johnson was killed by Sculpture No. 3, after a plate, weighing 5,212 pounds, broke free from its support, falling on him.
Another monumental sculptor, Alexander Calder, also made a work that inadvertently resulted in the death of art handlers. During the installation of Five Disks: One Emptyat Princeton University in 1971, one workman was “riding” the sculpture, another standing below it, when a cable snapped on the crane they were using to lower it into place. Both workmen died on the scene.If you’re reading this and thinking, all I have to do to avoid deadly art is not become an art handler, you’re out of luck. Some sculptures have been responsible for the deaths of innocent art viewers, too.Christo and Jeanne Claude are best known for their large-scale wrapping installations, but for the 1991 work, The Umbrellas, the artist couple had 3,100 umbrellas fabricated out of aluminum and steel, each weighing 485 pounds and standing at a height of 12 feet, installed in outdoor public settings across a total of 30 miles in California and Ibaraki, Japan. On October 26, 1991, unusually windy conditions uprooted one of the umbrellas, which rolled across a street, only to be stopped by a boulder. Sadly, it trapped 33-year-old Lori Mae Matthew in between. The artistsattended her funeral and ordered the deinstallation of the piece. Across the Pacific, however, another tragic accident occurred when the 51-year-old Masaki Nakamura waselectrocuted by a 65,000-volt power line that touched the crane he was using to take the umbrellas out of the ground.
Mark A. Bechard beat nuns with a religious statue, but not this one. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
The stories of statues being used asmurder aides are countless. Take the ungodly case of Mark A. Bechard, who allegedlybeat at least one nun with a religious statue, and killed two. These murders are unsurprisingly impulsive, probably due to the fact that, as Clue fans might imagine, the sculptures are almost always impromptu implements to deliver blunt force. Advertisem*nt
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