Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) has admitted to hanging fake Picasso artworks in a female toilet cubicle as part of its Ladies Lounge installation.
Artist and curator Kirsha Kaechele, the wife of Mona’s owner David Walsh, moved the fake Picassos to the toilet after losing a legal battle over Ladies Lounge.
After Mona was approached by both Guardian Australia and the Picasso Administration, Kaechele published a statement on Mona’s blog admitting the paintings are not by the Spanish artist. Instead, they were created by herself more than three years ago.
“Allow me to explain – I have no choice but to explain. From stage right, a journalist beckons – she’s on to me,” Kaechele wrote in the blog post. “And from stage left, a letter has arrived – from the Picasso Administration.”
Picassos were among the works of art displayed in Mona’s Ladies Lounge, which was only open to women and inspired by male-only spaces in Australia throughout history.
However, one male visitor was denied entry to the installation and in response filed a gender discrimination lawsuit, which he won, prompting Mona to relocate its Ladies Lounge to a female toilet.
In the new blog post, Kaechele said “if men were to feel as excluded as possible, the lounge would need to display the most important artworks in the world – the very best”.
Ladies Lounge lawsuit
She wrote: “I knew of a number of Picasso paintings I could borrow from friends, but none of them were green and I wished for the lounge to be monochrome. I also had time working against me, not to mention the cost of insuring a Picasso – exorbitant!”
Before owning up to the forgeries, Mona said Kaechele inherited the Picasso paintings from her great-grandmother.
In the blog post, Kaechele said she is “flattered that people believed my great-grandmother summered with Picasso at her Swiss chateau where he and my grandmother were lovers”.
Images courtesy of Mona
