German Provocateur Artist Sentenced to 8.5 Years in Prison in Russia After Mocking Putin
German sculptor and illustrator Jacques Tilly, 62, was sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court to 8.5 years in prison on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military and insulting religious feelings, after creating carnival floats mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Associated Press. Tilly, who has designed Düsseldorf Carnival parade floats for nearly 40 years, made works including a depiction of Putin in a blood-filled bathtub painted like the Ukraine flag and another showing him biting into a map of Ukraine with the words “Choke on it!” In an interview with German news agency dpa, Tilly called the case an “authoritarian regime’s propaganda trial” and said it was an attack on freedom of opinion, press, and satire. He previously drew attention in 2019 for a Brexit-protest float in London portraying Dominic Cummings as a demonic puppet-master of Boris Johnson, and he has also satirized figures including Donald Trump, Theresa May, and Angela Merkel.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Museums Under Siege, Auctions Breaking Records