By Andrés González
MADRID, Aug 14 (Reuters) - A Spanish businessman has bought
a statue symbolising women forced to work in Japanese military
brothels which was removed from an exhibition in Japan after
organisers received threats over the piece.
The "Statue of a Girl Of Peace" symbolises the "comfort
women", a euphemism referring to women, many of them Korean,
forced into the brothels before and during World War Two.
Estimates vary, but historians say thousands of women may
have been involved. There are currently 20 survivors registered
with the South Korean government and the subject remains a
sensitive one in both countries and elsewhere in Asia.
The work was removed after it attracted "terror threats" via
telephone and email as soon as it went on display this month at
the Aichi Triennale art exhibition, Aichi Prefecture Governor
Hideaki Omura told a news conference on August 3. Businessman Tatxo Benet said he plans to display the work,
which depicts a young woman wearing a traditional Korean dress
sitting on one of two wooden chairs, in a "Freedom Museum" he
plans to open in Barcelona as early as next year.
Benet, founder of soccer rights company Imagina (Mediapro),
said the museum would exhibit around 60 pieces of artwork that
have been censored in different parts of the world.
"A year and half ago I began buying artwork censured around
the world for different reasons whether political, ethical,
moral or sexual," Benet told Reuters in a telephone interview.
After reading about the furore caused by the statue in
Japan, he bought it last week, he said.
"I think I have enough material for a permanent exhibition
centre and perhaps even a documentation and archive centre about
censorship in the art world," Benet said.
His collection includes a Lego brick portrait by Chinese
dissident artist Ai Weiwei, a satirical painting of Donald Trump
by Illma Gore and a video by David Wojnarowicz censored by the
Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
From Spain, the exhibit will include a set of pictures of
jailed Catalan separatist leaders which was removed from
Madrid's ARCO art fair last year.
Organiser Ifema said at the time that the controversy
surrounding the pictures was hurting the visibility of other art
works, an explanation which sparked complaints from separatist
political parties and the left-wing Podemos party.
(Editing by Ashifa Kassam and Jason Neely)