Russian Artist Slonov Convicted Over A Tumbler Doll
- 24.09.2024, 11:58
The tumbler dolls will be destroyed by a court decision in Krasnoyarsk.
A court in Krasnoyarsk found artist Vasily Slonov guilty of repeatedly demonstrating extremist symbols and sentenced him to one year of correctional labor. This was reported by the TVK channel.
Slonov will also have 15% of his salary withheld in favor of the state. The court replaced the artist's house arrest with a written undertaking not to leave until the sentence comes into force. Earlier, the prosecutor requested two years of community service for Slonov.
The artist will appeal the sentence, and is especially outraged by the court's decision to destroy the tumbler dolls on which the charges were based.
“I am shocked twice by the decision to destroy the cultural treasures of our homeland. The two tumbler dolls that are currently in captivity need to be rescued, they need to be saved somehow. In addition to the fact that they have been in captivity since February 7, they are sentenced to destruction. I think their place is in the Hermitage or the Russian Museum,” Slonov told journalists.
The reason for initiating the criminal case was two of Slonov’s works – tumbler dolls with eight-pointed stars, the image of which the investigation associated with the “Prisoner Criminal Unity” (AUE) movement, banned in Russia as extremist.
During the trial, Slonov pleaded innocent and said that in his case the artist was being tried for the artwork. He noted in his final statement that if the prosecutor and the judge do not see the difference between a work of art and a tattoo, “then this is a problem of their cultural level” and in such a case it is necessary to invite cultural experts and art historians.
Slonov was detained on February 9. On the same day, his wife Elena published a resolution on initiating a criminal case on social media. It was later revealed that the criminal case was based on a tumbler doll with eight-pointed stars similar to prison tattoos, for which Slonov had previously been fined. The artist did not delete its photo from VKontakte after the court's decision. In 2021, Slonov created a nesting doll cage from iron bars. The artist noted that the nesting doll has always been a “global symbol of Russia.”