How should one deal with the works of a painter who sexually abused women?
Article from ZEIT Austria
Published in
ZEIT Austria No. 49/2024
Article summary
The Austrian artist Helmut Kand was convicted of sexual abuse a year ago, but only now is the Vienna city council discussing how his works should be dealt with. After his honorary title was revoked, feminist groups and the ÖVP are calling for his works of art to be removed from public spaces. SPÖ city councilor Kathrin Gaál is planning to redesign the facade, but this could take up to a year and a half. The women affected and ÖVP MP Silvia Janoch are calling for a quicker solution to protect the victims.
This is an experimental tool. The results may be incomplete, outdated or even incorrect.
Did you find the summary helpful?
It took exactly a year to the day for the case of the convicted Austrian artist Helmut Kand to reach the Vienna City Council. The city in which a painting by the 77-year-old adorns an entire facade, a “Grätzl landmark”, as the then housing councilor and current mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) on the occasion of the renovation in 2015. And the city in which Kand was convicted before the regional criminal court on November 14, 2023 because he had lured young women to his Vienna studio via online advertisements and under the pretext of creating art and sexually abused them there. The final verdict was a nine-month suspended prison sentence followed by a three-year probation for violating sexual self-determination in two cases.