The Center for Monitoring and Combating Anti -Semitism (MCA) Romania, which defends the rights of the Jews, criticized Artmark because it auctioned the portrait of Horia Sima, former leader of the Legionary Movement.
Portrait of Horia Sima Photo: Artmark
The Artmark Auction House has for sale, this spring, a portrait of Horia Sima, made by Cecilia Cuţescu Storck.
“Artmark auctions the portrait of a legionary criminal, of a member of the pro-Nazi government led by Marshal Ion Antonescu, of the second leader of the Legionary Movement, of the one who led the rebellion/pogrom from January 1941, when the legionaries treated with bestiality and killed over 125 Synagogues from Bucharest. What is in the mind of artmark who not for the first time, in the name of “art” violates the legislation. Everything for money. All because they know that in Romania there are many who would like to have such a portrait on the salon. Who will stop them and who will take them accountable?”, It is shown in the statement issued by MCA Romania.
Horia Sima, the last official captain of the Iron Guard in Romania, is probably the most controversial character of the Legionary Movement. It represented the highest expression of Romanian extremism in the 1940s, gave the green wave to the pogroms and led the Legionary Rebellion. He was the last leader of the Legionary Movement in Romania. Sima initiated and led the largest and most violent pogrom against the Jews in the history of Muntenia, the Pogrom in Bucharest.
Artmark believes that “The discussion of the past is necessary to not repeat the horrors since then”.
“The project of introducing this lot into the auction does not follow in any way the cosmetization of the role and the facts of the legionary movement or the exultation, as small, of the decisions that led to the Holocaust. The discussion of the past is necessary to not repeat the horrors since then. The Artmark Auction House firmly condemns any anti -Semitic, xenophobic and racist manifestation, both those that have happened in the past and the present ones.“, Artmark shows.
“Portrait of a legionary (Horia Sima) – 1940“It is estimated, on the Artmark website, at the amount of 2000-3500 euros.
