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# Crimes of the Art
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/crimes-of-the-art-33/
- Published: 2015-10-14T00:46:41.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:15:05.000Z
- Description: On this week’s art crime blotter: Elizabeth Hurley sets off alarms at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Florida man's giant chair sculpture angers neighbors, and Egyptian museum project under investigation for embezzlement.
- Author: Benjamin Sutton
- Tags: News, Art Crime, Crimes of the Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3)

!["Oops. Couldn't resist perching on this magnificent bed in the glorious V&A last night....and set all the alarms off. Thank you to the @vamuseum staff for being nice @dolcegabbana ???" (photo by @elizabethhurley1/Instagram)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/crimes-art-elizabeth-hurley.jpg)

“Oops. Couldn’t resist perching on this magnificent bed in the glorious V&A last night….and set all the alarms off. Thank you to the @vamuseum staff for being nice @dolcegabbana ???” (photo by @elizabethhurley1/Instagram)

[*Crimes of the Art*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/crimes-of-the-art/) *is a weekly survey of artless criminals’ cultural misdeeds. Crimes are rated on a highly subjective scale from one “Scream” emoji — the equivalent of a vandal tagging the exterior of a local history museum in a remote part of the US — to five “Scream” emojis — the equivalent of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist.*

## Elizabeth Hurley Hurled Out of Museum

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-4](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-4.jpg)

Actress Elizabeth Hurley [ran afoul](http://observer.com/2015/10/elizabeth-hurley-booted-from-va-museum-after-bed-selfie/?ref=hyperallergic.com) of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s security staff when she posed for a photo (subsequently posted [on Instagram](https://instagram.com/p/8itp1rx58t/?ref=hyperallergic.com)) reclining on the 1580 [Great Bed of Ware](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great%5FBed%5Fof%5FWare?ref=hyperallergic.com). The transgression immediately set off the museum’s alarms, and Hurley and her companion were escorted from the institution.

**Verdict:** She evidently forgot [the cautionary words of her most famous co-star](https://youtu.be/F1lJFlB-89Q?ref=hyperallergic.com).

## Neighbors Can’t Stand Florida Man’s Giant Chair Sculpture

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-2](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-2.jpg)

Artist Steven Chayt of Winter Haven, Florida, has angered his neighbors with a 24-foot-tall sculpture of a chair he is building on his property. “He sets the tone for the front of the neighborhood and it’s disturbing,” local resident Vanessa Barfield [told *The Ledger*](http://www.theledger.com/article/20151011/news/151019925?p=1&tc=pg&ref=hyperallergic.com). Chayt, for his part, doesn’t see what the big deal is and plans to complete the sculpture by wrapping it in metal and decorating it with a clown face.

**Verdict:** Coming from a state that [already has](http://www.roadarch.com/giants/fl.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) giant sculptures of magicians, vikings, and the devil, so much outrage over a monument to a noble piece of furniture smacks of hypocrisy.

## Grand Embezzlement Museum

![A July 2014 construction photo from the site of the Grand Egyptian Museum (photo via Grand Egyptian Museum/Facebook)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/10/crimes-art-egypt-museum.jpg)

A July 2014 construction photo from the site of the Grand Egyptian Museum (photo via Grand Egyptian Museum/Facebook)

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-4](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-4.jpg)

The administrative prosecution of Egypt is [launching](http://www.thecairopost.com/news/171555/news/probe-opened-into-alleged-graft-in-grand-egyptian-museum?ref=hyperallergic.com) an investigation into the alleged embezzlement of some $20 million in funds provided by foreign organizations to support the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

**Verdict:** The three-year construction delay — the museum was originally scheduled to open in August — must have tipped them off.

## Oscars Take Down OscART

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-1](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-1.jpg)

Under pressure from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Vienna Chamber of Commerce has [changed](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/hollywood-sues-austrian-art-prize-339044?ref=hyperallergic.com) the name of its biennial art award, formerly known as the “OscART,” to the “[viennaARTaward](http://www.viennaartaward.at/?ref=hyperallergic.com).” The change allegedly came following threats of a lawsuit over the Austrian art award’s similarity to the name of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s annual awards ceremony, which you may have heard of, the Oscars.

**Verdict:** And the Oscar for biggest bully goes to …