DHL plays censor: paintings nearly destroyed as "pornography"

From the Budapest Sun:

A MEO gallery exhibition opened late after some of the pictures due to be exhibited were mistaken for pornography.

According to a representative of the gallery, DHL Magyarország Kft, which was delivering the artwork, had threatened to either return the portraits of naked women by Japanese artist Nobuyoshi Araki to Japan or destroy them.

Júlia Szôcs, director of the gallery, said organizers realized something had gone wrong when Araki's work did not get to the gallery on time.

Szôcs claimed that when the gallery contacted DHL, it was informed that the pictures, worth over $350,000, were being held at the airport awaiting a final decision on whether they should be sent back to Japan or be destroyed, should the customer not pay the costs.

DHL deny there was a danger of the pictures being destroyed, but admitted that an employee of the company's customs unit found the contents of the parcel suspiciously pornographic. Although customs papers were in order, he alerted MEO gallery that DHL might send the pictures back to Japan.

There's a shorter writeup in Ananova which omits DHL's response, but adds a couple of pictures.

Posted by David on December 9, 2003 5:12 PM