Arguing over art is right but banning it is the work of fascists | Jonathan Jones

A failed petition to remove a controversial Balthus painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the latest worrying attempt to censor a work of art

In 1989, Republican senators Jesse Helms and Alfonse D’Amato launched an attack on artistic freedom. They railed against Piss Christ, a photograph by Andres Serrano of a cheap crucifix in a tank of the artist’s own urine. The red and yellow tints of Serrano’s piss give this modern Baroque artwork a spookily spiritual quality, redolent of the light in old churches, yet for these culture warriors of the conservative right it was just a desecration and an insult, exhibited, outrageously, using money from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Related: New York art museum refuses to remove painting of girl after 'voyeurism' complaint

Related: By bowing to the braying internet mob, the Guggenheim forgot its purpose | Rupert Myers

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