[ti:Fake Picassos Create Legal Trouble for Australian Museum]
[al:Arts and Culture]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-07-16]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]An art gallery in the Australian state of Tasmania presented three paintings as if they were works by the famed painter, Pablo Picasso. 
[00:13.05]At first, the museum limited viewers to women. 
[00:16.90]When that brought legal action against the museum, they moved the paintings to a women's bathroom.
[00:24.88]Now it is clear people were reacting strongly to artworks that were not really by Picasso. 
[00:32.15]Nor were other paintings said to be by other famed artists. 
[00:36.48]The truth came out last week when the curator of the women-only show admitted she had painted them herself. 
[00:44.89]The admission came after a reporter and the Picasso Administration in France questioned her about the paintings.
[00:54.54]The show's curator is Kirsha Kaechele.
[00:58.36]She admitted last week that she had painted the works.
[01:02.84]She wrote a blog post on the website of Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).
[01:10.53]The museum is known in Australia for its strange exhibitions and events.
[01:17.18]The story began in 2020, when Kaechele created a women-only area, called the "Ladies Lounge," for visitors to enjoy being only with women.
[01:28.09]The so-called Ladies Lounge offered high tea, massages and champagne served by men.
[01:35.80]It was open to anyone who identified as a woman.
[01:39.80]The lounge was supposed to display "the most important artworks in the world," Kaechele wrote, in order for men "to feel as excluded as possible."
[01:50.89]But in March, the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ordered MONA to stop denying men the right to enter the Ladies Lounge. 
[02:01.08]The order came after a male visitor became angry that he could not enter the space in 2023.
[02:09.07]Tribunal Deputy President Richard Grueber wrote in his decision that he found the exhibition to be discriminatory. 
[02:18.48]He ruled that the man had suffered a disadvantage, in part because the artworks in the Ladies Lounge were so valuable.
[02:27.67]Kaechele described the artworks to the tribunal as "a carefully curated selection of paintings by the world's leading artists, including two paintings that spectacularly demonstrate Picasso's genius."
[02:46.09]Rather than admit men to the exhibit, Kaechele added a working toilet to the space, turning it into a women's bathroom.
[02:54.52]This gave the gallery a legal reason to deny entry to men.
[03:00.24]International news organizations reported on the change to the exhibit earlier this year.
[03:07.92]They did not question that a gallery would hang Picasso paintings in a public bathroom.
[03:14.36]However, the Guardian news agency reported last week that it asked Kaechele about the work. 
[03:22.92]That led to her admission about making the paintings herself.
[03:27.77]I'm Jill Robbins.