Cartrain Steals Damien Hirst’s Art (Update)
16 year old graffiti artist Cartrain walked in to the Tate Briton (London) early last week and removed a packet of pencils from one of Damien Hirsts exhibits. Damien Hirst and Cartrain have a long standing rocky history. Earlier this year Hirst targeted the young graffiti artist Cartrain using Design and Artists Copyright Society (DAC’s) for copyright infringement on his latest series of artworks being sold on 100artworks.com.
Cartrain is a 16 year artist whose work can be found mostly in backstreets of East London’s Brick Lane and Old Street. Cartrain’s left wing stencils and collages often contain recognisable figures such as George Bush and the Queen.
The box of very rare “FABER CASTELL dated 1990 Mongol 482 series” pencils were removed from Damien Hirst’s “PHARMACY installation” by Cartrain on Thursday, July 2nd, around 4pm. Not long after the pencils were removed from the installation a fake police “appeal for assistance” posters appeared around London.
This is the latest in a string of events surrounding the feud between the two artists. It began when Damien Hirst contracted the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DAC’s) to send a string of legal letters to Cartrain’s artdealer Tom Cuthbert at 100artworks.com in regards to Cartrain’s series of artworks ‘For the Love of God’. The online gallery surrendered the artworks to Damien Hirst with a verbal apology.
UPDATE: July 11, 2009
From Cartrain’s gallery representatives, Cartrain’s Demands…
“For the safe return of Damien Hirsts pencils I would like my artworks back that Dacs and Hirst took off me in November. Its not a large demand he can have his pencils back when I get my artwork back. Dacs are now not taking any notice of my emails and I have asked nicely more than five times to try and resolve this matter. Hirst has until the end of this month to resolve this or on 31st of July the pencils will be sharpened. He has been warned.”
Tags: cartrain, damien hirst, Tate Briton
Cartrain has been raided at his home address for the theft of the pencils from the damien hirst exbition at the tate modern of the value of up to 10 million pounds.He has been remanded into her majestys custody until his court case next month.His father was also arrested.