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dated March 25, 1953: Artist Smashes Statue

Artist Laslo Szilvassy (28), a Hungarian refugee from behind the Iron Curtain, smashed in London's famous Tate Gallery a prize-winning sculpture of the "Unknown Political Prisoner" because he thought it stood as a `mockery' of the theme. Szilvassy, classed as a stateless person, marched into the exhibition in Tate's and crashed the statue to the floor, leaving it a mass of bent, tangled wire and broken stone.

The sculpture had won a prize of 4,500 shillings for British artist Reg Butler in an international competition. A police witness testified that, on his arrest, Szilvassy said, "I have been a prisoner behind the Iron Curtain, and I was put in prison by the Germans. I smashed the statue because this sort of things is a vulgar mockery that trades in the name of art, and completely lacks humanism." Szilvassy, who was working as an artist with a firm of badge-makers, was remanded to custody for a week.

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