Ambassador vandalises art exhibit

The Swedish government will ask Israel’s ambassador to explain why he damaged a museum artwork he claimed glorified suicide bombers, a spokeswoman said today.

Zvi Mazel was asked to leave the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm on Friday, after throwing a mounted spot light at a courtyard exhibit, damaging it.

“This was not a piece of art. This was a monstrosity, an obscene distortion of reality,” Mazel told Swedish Radio.

The artwork consisted of a small ship carrying a picture of Islamic Jihad bomber Hanadi Jaradat sailing in a rectangular pool with red-coloured water.

Titled Snow White and the Madness of Truth, the artwork was supposed to call attention to how weak people left alone can be capable of horrible things, said Israeli-born artist Dror Feiler, who conceived the artwork.

“(Mazel) tried to stop free speech and free artistic expression from being carried out in Sweden,” Feiler said.

Mazel will be asked to explain his attack to the Foreign Ministry next week, spokeswoman Anna Larsson said.

“We will ask him to explain and from our side we will maintain that it is unacceptable to destroy works of art in this way,” Larsson said.