Stealing digital photos has long been a pasttime for some web junkies, and we as photographers have always dealt with it. Sign of the times. But this week’s theft of Jason Lee’s Polaroid portrait of actor Dennis Hopper is straight-up bull shittake.
The art collective ThisLosAngeles last week reported that, after a gallery opening called These Friends, they agreed to let a patron use the restroom just before closing. Turns out that this particular patron visited the toilet, but also paid a visit to the incredibly valuable (and beautiful) one-of-a-kind-polaroid-portrait of Dennis Hopper (shot by artist/actor Jason Lee) in the back of the gallery…and he swiped it. Pulled the art off the wall and walked out.
G’head and blame the gallery, blame the collective, blame the attendant who let the guy take a leak, blame whomever. The point is that I’m blaming the perpetrator and you should too. Stealing is bad, stealing one of a kind art is worse, and that the thief is amongst us…
Now–after several days and a $25,000 reward–Lee’s Polaroid is still missing. The gallery is facing the prospect of going out of business, the cops have little resources to sink resources into finding the culprit and recovering the loss. Wouldn’t it be nice if we in the photo, art, design, pop culture community could track this photo (and this criminal) down?
Citizens arrest. Call Jeremy Weiss at 323-747-5301 or this@thislosangeles.com if you have any tips.
(via Fraction Magazine. More details here from ThisLosAngeles.)
This kind of reminds me of the documentary I saw recently that Orson Welles narrated about an art plagiarist. He did fantastic fakes, so much so that even the Art Dealers and specialists couldn’t tell they were fake.I think it’s one of the most interesting documentaries I’ve ever seen! Sad about stealing the polaroid. Don’t photographers get ripped off enough by such low wages?
This is horrible!!!! I hope they find the picture and punish the thief!
We’d better find that guy, photos like that are irreplaceable… I’ll retweet this one 🙂
This is disgusting. And while so many turn a blind eye to copyright infringement of photography, now it’s just straight up theft and how disheartening. I hope that they figure this one out.
To the person who wrote this “But something is fundamentally wrong with society when we place a Polaroid’s worth at 25k” sorry but you are wrong in my opinion. Do not disregard the value of art and try to “guilt” people into not caring about art by juxtaposing it to hunger. It’s the oldest and cheapest one-trick pony in the book.
The current home you live in, your car and your computer could also feed someone. Have you sold those to do so? The truth is hunger is a complex problem that is not easily solved by every valuable to a person being removed and sold for food. Much of the issues that cause hunger and homelessness are mental health, alcoholism, lack of employment, lack of resources, social support and stigma for poverty itself. Couple in prejudice for some groups of homelessness and hunger and the problem is more complex. There are many things that each individual and the government could do to change this and suggesting that YOU decide how much art is valued at is not one of them.
Science saves lives. Art makes them worth living.
Does the gallery not have any security footage of the jerk! I always wondered how famous works of art are ever sold, and who would display something that a lot of folks know is stolen!