Police break into art gallery after spotting 'dead woman' and are left shocked
Police said they have a 'duty of care to respond when there are welfare concern'
Anish Vij
Police broke into a locked art gallery in London due to 'concerns for the welfare of a person'.
Last month (25 November), police forced themselves into art gallery Laz Emporium on Lexington Street after spotting a 'person' who looked to be collapsed over a table.
"Police were called at 17:32hrs on Friday, 25 November to concerns for the welfare of a person at a locked business premises on Lexington Street, W1," a Met Police statement read.
However, after forced entry into the premises, officers quickly learned that the 'person' was in fact a 'manikin'.
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Sounds a bit like an episode of Pink Panther so far.
"At approximately 17:57hrs officers forced entry to the address where they uncovered that the person was in fact a manikin," police added.
"The Met has a duty of care to respond when there are welfare concern."
It turns out that the manikin was just a piece of art - Kristina - made by American artist Mark Jenkins.
Kristina was reportedly commissioned by the art gallery, who wanted a portrayal of his sister who passed out and buried her face in a plate of soup.
“[Gallery employee] Hannah [Blakemore], who was working in the gallery that day, had just locked up and gone upstairs to make a cup of tea,” Laz Emporium said in a statement.
“She came down to find the door off its hinges and two confused police officers!”
Blakemore told Artnet News that she was 'shocked' to see police officers in the gallery.
She said: "Somebody reported that the woman here has not been moving for the last two hours”.
The employee claims that officers assumed the figure had 'a heart attack or she’s overdosed'.
"The work is to provoke and it’s definitely achieving that," Blakemore concluded.
Well, she's certainly not wrong there.
Keeping on the topic of controversial pieces, an artist was recently sued over taping a banana to a wall.
The slightly bizarre suit alleges that Maurizio Cattelan has copied the artwork of Joe Morford from 2000, when he also made a piece in which bananas and oranges were taped to a panel.
U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola, Jr., rejected Cattelan’s motion to dismiss the case, claiming that Morford had 'adequately alleged that Cattelan’s Comedian has a substantial similarity to […] elements of Banana & Orange'.
The defence claim that Cattelan 'independently created his work, Comedian, without knowledge of or reference to Plaintiff’s work, Banana & Orange'.