EPSTEIN’S SCULPTURE

Hokitika Guardian, 17 October 1929, Page 6

EPSTEIN’S SCULPTURE

STATUE TARRED AND FEATHERED. (United Press Association—By Eleotric Telegraph—Copyright). LONDON, October 15.

The enemies of the sculptor, Jacob Kpstein (whose latest work was the subject of adverse criticism last May) have now turned their attention to the statue by him at the underground station at Westminster. A policeman was surprised when four young men, dressed in “plus fours,” dashed out from the Westminster Station at two o’clock this morning, and escaped in a motor car. The police then discovered several jars containing - tar and also some feathers.

Daylight revealed that parts of the statue had been tarred.

Mr Epstein, when informed of this outrage, said, “People do this sort of thing. It is a great mistake if they think that it angers me. I am not even disgusted. The artist’s feeling is confined solely to his work. He should have no sentiment, one way or the other. There were acts of this kind on Michael Angelo’s ‘David,’ at Florence, and tho statue had bars around it to protect it from attack after the populace had stoned it. I’m in good company!”

[Mr Epstein, who is a Now Yorker by birth, of Russo-Pnlish extraction, and 49 years of age, was in 1907 commissioned to execute figures to decorate the new building of the British Medical Association in tho Strand. London, and it was then that his work began to be attacked by tho newspapers and by religious bodies.]

JAPAN’S DELEGATES TO NAVAL CONFERENCE. TOKYO, October 16. Japan’s acceptance of the naval invitation has been approved by Cabinet and sanctioned by the Emperor, and will he forwarded by MatsudaSra to-night. Japan’s delegates will be Wakatsuki, Taknrabe and Matsudaira.