MONA founder sorry for ‘sloppy’ Auschwitz comment

FOUNDER of the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) David Walsh has apologised for a blog post in which he called people who visit the Auschwitz concentration camp “creepy f***s”. The comments drew ire from the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), which called on Walsh to apologise.

“This ugly and hurtful remark is a grievous slap in the face to the memory of the more than 1.5 million people who were tortured and murdered in Auschwitz,” said ADC chair Dvir Abramovich.

“For Mr Walsh to use such outrageously degrading and demeaning rhetoric about those who bravely enter the gates of hell in order to confront the truth and to express their grief, is a reminder that we have much work to do in Holocaust education and remembrance.”

In the blog entry posted on April 19 defending a controversial installation by Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch, which features a freshly-slaughtered bull, Walsh wrote, “I didn’t build Mona to serve the sort of creepy f***s that go to Auschwitz.”

The post was still online at the time The AJN went to print.

In reply to the post, Jonathan Rabinovitz commented, “I wonder if some of the ‘creepy f***s’ who visit Auschwitz, do so in attempt to process the trauma of losing family members … Your highly inappropriate and insensitive comment detracted somewhat from your article. Shame on you.”

Walsh replied to Rabinovitz, saying that his comment was intended to be ironic, and was unfortunate: “Not only was it offensive, for which I apologise, but it was sloppy, since it bore no relation to the subject that I was attempting to comment on.

“In attempting the same ironic outcome while trying to add punch, I changed my text to a reference to Auschwitz, without contemplating the more immediate ramifications for the very many with a potent connection to that tragic place. The punch I added was to my own glass jaw.”

However, Walsh also said that outrage is “good for business” and that the public has a “morbid fascination with disaster tourism”.

Abramovich has invited Walsh to visit the Jewish Holocaust Museum to further his understanding of the Holocaust.

YAEL BRENDER