London's Design Museum has returned around a third of the pieces of work in its blighted Hope to Nope exhibition to the artists and designers involved, on their request.
The artists demanded that their works be removed in an open letter posted on the Campaign Against Arms Trade website, in response to the museum hosting a private event for Leonardo, an Italian leader in the aerospace and defence industry on July 17.
They called for their work to be removed by August 1. The Design Museum complied with this request, with entry to the exhibition now free until its scheduled closure on August 12.
Captions explain why items have been removed from the exhibition
Where work has been taken down, the museum has left the walls of the exhibition space empty, bar a caption attributed to its directors Deyan Sudjic and Alice Black that reads: "This artwork was removed at the request of the lender who has objected to a private event by an aerospace and defence company that was held at the Design Museum." It goes on to say that the museum is proud of the exhibition and aims to give a platform to different views without taking a position themselves.
Works removed in protest of "artwashing by the arms industry"
Signatories to the letter, whose work has now been returned, include political artist Peter Kennard, The Space Hijackers (official protestors of the London 2012 Olympics), BP or not BP", and Shepard Fairey, designer of the Obama HOPE poster from the 2008 elec...