Australian Artist Might Be a Terrible Person, Has Show Vandalized
Police in Torquay, England are investigating a local branch of the Triton Gallery, the Independent reports, after their windows were smeared with black paint early Tuesday morning. The work on display included paintings by Rolf Harris, an 83-year-old Australian painter best known for his work as a t
Police in Torquay, England are investigating a local branch of the Triton Gallery, the Independent reports, after their windows were smeared with black paint early Tuesday morning. The work on display included paintings by Rolf Harris, an 83-year-old Australian painter best known for his work as a television entertainer, who was arrested and questioned last month as part of a series of inquiries into allegations of sexual abuse against the late television presenter Jimmy Savile.
For our American readers, some background information may be in order. Beginning in the 1960s and well into the early 2000s, Jimmy Savile was among the most celebrated presenters on British television. He was the first and last presenter of the American Bandstand–style countdown show Top of the Pops, and for twenty years hosted Jim’ll Fix It, in which he would grant an unusual wish sent in from one of the show’s ordinary viewers, most of whom were children. An accomplished philanthropist who raised more than £40 million ($61.7 million) for various charities in his lifetime, Savile was honored with an OBE in 1971 and was knighted in 1990, and had countless prizes and prestigious honors to his name when he died in October 2011.
Most of these have been rescinded. In the year following Savile’s death, a large handful of men and women — including former guests on Savile’s TV shows and patients in hospitals who were the beneficiaries of Savile’s generosity — came forward to various news agencies to report that Savile had abused them as children. Within months, that number grew to several hundred. In October 2012, the London Metropolitan Police Service opened an investigation into the allegations against Savile, called Operation Yewtree, and in January 2013, they published a report, “Giving Victims a Voice,” which concluded that Savile had committed a total of 450 offenses, mostly against children and teenagers. Plaques near Savile’s hometown were vandalized, his honorary green beret by the Royal Marines was “erased,” charities named after Savile began rebranding, and a wax statue of Savile at Madame Tussauds London was melted down.
Operation Yewtree did not confine itself to claims against Savile and those in his immediate circle. In March, Rolf Harris, a Perth art school graduate who has worked on British television as an animator and musician since the 1960s, was arrested and interviewed under caution, but not charged, in connection with Operation Yewtree. The details about his own case have been hard to come by. Though he was first identified by Scotland Yard simply as “an 82-year-old man from Berkshire” arrested “on suspicion of sexual offences,” by last Friday, his name was reported in various news media. This week, broad swaths of black paint were seen on the gallery’s shop window.
Though Harris has never commented on the allegations against him, for unnamed “sexual offenses,” he is understood to deny any wrongdoing, and Triton Gallery owner David Phelps appears to be unmoved by the entire affair. “I don’t think my staff are perturbed by what has happened and I am not worried at all. We are going to continue to sell Rolf Harris’ paintings. They are continuing to sell well throughout the country irrespective of the allegations,” he told the Independent.
And the £300 the Daily Mail estimates in damage? “Someone has put black paint on the window,” Phelps said. “It is only superficial and has been removed.”
