Loading ...A Qatari sheikh, Picasso's censored breasts and the west’s confusion over Islam
Picasso’s Women of Algiers (Version O) is the painting that just keeps on giving to news outlets. The world record sale of this late Picasso daub for £116 million has started a story that just won’t die. The latest twist, at the end of last week, was the buyer’s identity: reportedly, the secret billionaire purchaser was Qatar’s Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.
That, it seems, was empty speculation. Christie’s has denied the story. The Telegraph has removed its report. What’s fascinating, though, given the apparent lack of a factual basis to the buyer’s unmasking, is how the flaky story was interpreted.
Qatar’s Islamic decency laws, reported the excited western media, meant the painting would have to be locked away and never shown in public. The sheikh would have to keep his treasure a shameful secret.
Fascinating. An image of Islamic intolerance and religious censorship appears to have been created on a totally fictional basis. Don’t let Qatar suppress Picasso’s lust! Save our Cubist boobs from Muslim bigotry!
Even if the story about the painting going to Qatar were true – and this oil-rich, art-loving state must still be a plausible destination for the world’s most expensive painting – you don’t have to be Edward Said to be struck by the fantasy of oriental intolerance that some media outlets have dreamt up. There were no hard facts at all, and certainly nothing to prove the painting would be censored by Qatar.
Source: www.theguardian.com