Colombian artist Fernando Botero has chosen Berkeley as permanent home to his compelling Abu Ghraib paintings. However, details of the agreement need to be worked out before it's a done deal. The Center for Latin American Studies sponsored the only American showing of Botero's images of Abu Ghraib prisoners earlier this year.
Latin America's most celebrated living artist, Botero has offered to give the university all the pictures it displayed — 25 big paintings and 22 drawings of bound, bloodied and blindfolded naked prisoners, one pawed by a ferocious dog. They're based on the photographs and stories of Iraqi prisoners tortured by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau has tentatively agreed to accept the gift, the monetary value of which experts peg at $10 million to $15 million....
In April, the artist, who lives mostly in Paris, e-mailed Professor Harley Shaiken, director of the Center for Latin American Studies, who had organized the show, to say he'd decided to give the works to UC Berkeley. He wrote that because of the school's academic stature and "openness of spirit," he wanted the pictures to reside there permanently.
"We were stunned. It was well beyond our wildest dreams," said Shaiken, who relayed the offer to the chancellor, whom he praises for taking the risk of showing these provocative works and supporting the belief that "a university deals with ideas."
