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The sensational painting by a publicity-shy woman artist is now on display for all to see on the internet, along with a self-censored update she has painted in mockery of the ban. Both versions can be seen in Greet Autgaerden's online exhibition, alongside even more extreme images that she calls Naked Meat. Autgaerden, a 33 year-old Belgian artist who's provocative paintings are highly sought after, posed the royal couple in an idyllic rose garden with four muzzled dogs, frothing and straining at the leash. She wanted to show the world of the royals as a caged existence, where they are not free to communicate with normal people.
But on opening night at the Belvue Museum of Art in Brussels, museum officials draped a cloth over the slavering hounds so as "not to offend royalists", before withdrawing the painting from public view. This has provoked the artist to update her royal portrait by replacing the hapless dogs with giant pixels, in a parody of censored identity photos. But she has left the images of the King and Queen exposed.
Etienne Verbist, the Curator of the CollectValue online museum, says "I think these paintings are poignant and sympathetic to the true nature of our royal family. If these images of a dead king and queen pruning roses are too shocking to be seen, then you may as well censor half the allegorical and religious paintings from the Renaissance onwards." He went on to say there would be no question of withdrawing the images from the internet museum and was proud to be able to display the artist's work for all to see.
View the Naked Meat exhibition here:
http://www.collectvalue.com/
