No more Michel Van Rijn to kick around any more?

Although many will dispute who has been doing the most kicking . . .
In any event, professional loose cannon Michel Van Rijn appears to have taken down his website, claiming fears for his children's safety. This has duly been reported by the Register (and to date no one else), whose primary beat is tech news rather than art, but which has a decided leaning towards the iconoclastic and antiestablishment. If the following is an accurate quote, however, one wonders what is really up:

Van Rijn, whose own life has been threatened in the past, says his children are his ultimate treasure, and he couldn't continue his website if it posed any danger to them. He is, however, determined to continue to work to repatriate looted artefacts.

If Van Rijn is being threatened, will shutting down the website really be enough to get him off the hook? Or has the cost of defending against repeated libel suits finally proven unsupportable?

Posted by David on October 20, 2006 9:16 AM