Curators Face 3 Years In Prison

Artists and rights activists have appealed to the Kremlin to put a stop to the prosecution of two curators, Yury Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev, but Russian prosecutors refuse to back down and have asked the presiding judge to hand down a three-year prison sentence on July 12. Why the hoopla? The curators previously included some art works in an exhibition which were thought to be inciting religious hatred. One painting depicted Jesus Christ as Mickey Mouse, another as Vladimir Lenin. The 2007 exhibit, Forbidden Art, at the Sakharov Museum, was part of an effort to fight censorship of the arts, but the Russian Orthodox Church was horrified. The curators and their lawyers believe they will be found guilty. More from the AP here.

UPDATE: July 12, 2010

Today, the two curators “were found guilty of inciting hatred by a Russian court on Monday, but the judge let them go free, after ordering them to pay fines.“