WASHINGTON, August 16 (RIA Novosti) – Decades after customs officials forced him to leave his “satirical” paintings of erotic bakeries and plane crashes in the Siberian research city of Akademgorodok, a US artist will fly to Russia next month to “rescue” his long-lost artworks from exile, a local news site has reported.
Camano Island, Washington-based artist Jack Gunter, 65, first traveled to Akademgorodok in 1989 to exhibit 12 of his paintings after meeting a peace delegation from the city at his gallery in Stanwood, Washington earlier the same year.
When he returned in 1990 however customs officials refused to return the pictures to him since he lacked the correct paperwork. They have been held “hostage” in Russia ever since, Gunter told The Herald Thursday.
Gunter finally managed via Facebook to contact a member of the original delegation who still had the paintings. The artist plans to film his “rescue” mission, in which he will also meet a cardboard cutout of Edward Snowden and “fend off” a Vladimir Putin lookalike, The Herald reported.
