Hydrology_joe
Seaman Recruit
Joined: 02 Jun 2004
Posts: 10
Location: Mid America
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 Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:37 pm Post subject: Gov't to release artist's fake passports |
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Has anyone else seen this steaming pile of horse manure? Apparently if you claim it is for an "art exhibit", it is ok to possess illegal paraphernalia. Does this scream... "Hey Al Qaeda, this is how to do it"... to anyone else but me?
Government to release artist's fake passports
CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) -- Federal authorities Thursday decided to release artwork, including fake passports, confiscated from the luggage of an Austrian artist on his way to set up an exhibit on government power over the individual.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/18/fake.passports.ap/index.html
| Quote: | A customs officer at Detroit Metropolitan Airport confiscated the 33 passports, ink pads, rubber stamps, grommets and a photo-hanging tool February 9.
But a reviewing office of the customs and border protection bureau, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, decided the items didn't fit the parameters for confiscation as immoral or harmful materials, customs spokeswoman Cherise Miles said in a telephone interview from Chicago.
Robert Jelinek, leader of the Vienna, Austria-based art group Sabotage, discovered the items were missing when he found a Department of Homeland Security receipt in his luggage, museum officials said. Jelinek flew through Detroit on his way to Cincinnati.
The items were supposed to be included in the Contemporary Arts Center's display of Sabotage's exhibit "State of Sabotage." Five other groups have related displays on themes of corporate or government power within the overall exhibit titled Inc., scheduled to continue through May 8.
Jelinek returned to Vienna after the exhibit opened last weekend.
Government officials will work with either the museum or Jelinek on Friday to return the items, Miles said.
"We're very pleased," said museum spokeswoman Katie Taft. She said museum officials sent an e-mail Thursday to Jelinek and awaited his response.
The exhibit now includes a statement by Jelinek, along with the Department of Homeland Security's confiscation receipt.
"Who would think that the U.S. government has a pronounced interest in contemporary fine art these days?" the statement reads. "The homeland art obsession goes so far that our luggage and personal items were almost all damaged and all artistic materials were confiscated."
Miles said the government has no knowledge of confiscated items beyond those listed in the receipt. |
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