Defaced outdoor Obama painting to stay up at Sacramento gallery
A defaced painting of President Obama that stands above a Sacramento art gallery will remain up for all to see, the curator says.
Barbara Range at the Brickhouse Art Gallery told FOX40 she was angry and in disbelief when she first saw the graffiti across the large rooftop painting last week. But she later decided that it will stay up.
”We will not have it removed simply because someone chose to disagree with the view of President Obama,” Range said.
An artist at the gallery told FOX40 it would be impossible to clean the graffiti without doing permanent damage to the original painting underneath.
In addition to crossing out the president’s face, the tagger sprayed the acronym “NWO” and the phrase “No War” on the painting. “NWO” is an acronym for “New World Order,” a conspiracy about a secret world government.
Range said she believes in free speech, but that the act of vandalism crossed a line.
“I do not believe that you need to express that freedom by destroying art,” she said.
Artist Chris Bonner, who was outside the gallery Monday night, agreed.
“If they want to express something, go paint a sign and walk around with it,” he said. “You get to express your feelings. But don’t go deface other people’s property to do it.”
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