New TV Show Buys Painting by Hitler to Maybe Destroy With Flamethrower

A major UK broadcaster has purchased a painting by Adolph Hitler and will give a live studio audience the option to keep or destroy it.  

The future of Hitler’s art won’t be the only work from a “problematic” artist that will be threatened with destruction via flamethrower. The Channel 4 show “Art Trouble”, which will be hosted by comedian Jimmy Carr, will see work by paedophile Rolf Harris and sex offender Eric Gill put to the public, as well as a vase by womaniser Pablo Picasso. 

The broadcaster claims that the one-off show will explore society’s willingness to separate the art from the artist by openly debating “what we should do with historic art we find offensive or has been created by artists who are now cancelled?”

“[Art Trouble is] a profoundly provocative exploration of the limits of free expression in art, and whether we can separate the moral calibre of the artist from the value of their work,” Channel 4 said in a press release. “Combining stunts, surprises and special guests with a public experiment conducted by well-known artists across Britain, Art Trouble celebrates C4’s disruptive roots by exploring the boundary between controversial art and freedom of expression.”

As part of the show, advocates for each work of art will be given the opportunity to explain why the artwork deserves to be saved, without defending the artist. “So you’ve got an advocate for Hitler,” Ian Katz, Channel 4’s director of programming, told the Guardian. “There’ll be someone arguing not for Hitler, but for the fact that his moral character should not decide whether or not a piece of art exists or not.”