The 42 million euro gamble: if Julian Assange dies, works of art by Picasso and Rembrandt will be reduced to a pile of rubble | Bizarre

Sixteen works of art are currently safely packed and stored in a 29-ton safe. But for how long, the question is. After all, as soon as Assange dies, a mechanism comes into effect that can reduce the valuable creations to a pile of rubble in a short time.

Molodkin relies on a pneumatic pump that connects two white barrels. One contains an extremely corrosive substance, the other contains a substance that accelerates the chemical reaction.

The safe, which is located in Molodkin’s studio in the south of France, will be locked on Friday. From then on, a 24-hour countdown clock will come into effect every day. During that time, someone close to Assange must confirm that the whistleblower is still alive. If that happens, there will be a restart. In the other scenario, the works of art are irrevocably lost. The project was aptly named ‘The dead man’s switch’.

However, it is not all doom and gloom: if Assange were released, the works would simply return to their rightful owner.

“In these catastrophic times of war, it is apparently less taboo to destroy human life than art,” Molodkin charges. “Since Assange has been locked up, freedom of expression has also come under increasing pressure. I certainly have that feeling very strongly.”

Assange founded Wikileaks in 2006, a site through which hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents were leaked. A video also appeared showing how an American attack helicopter in Iraq killed twelve Iraqi civilians and several journalists from the British news agency Reuters.

The United States would like to see his extradition, but so far the Australian remains locked up in a high-security British prison. On February 20, his case will be heard before the High Court in London, his last trump card. If Assange were actually extradited, he would face 175 years in prison. His supporters are now seriously concerned about his health.

Molodkin now wants to address that “injustice” with this remarkable action. Exactly which masterpieces he holds ‘hostage’ remains a mystery. He wants to reveal the names of most of the artists. In addition to Picasso, Rembrandt and Warhol, these include Jasper Johns, Jannis Kounellis, Robert Rauschenberg, Sarah Lucas, Santiago Sierra, Jake Chapman and Molodkin himself.

“If things go wrong, masterpieces will be erased from history. But no one will know which pearls have actually been lost,” says Molodkin. The stakes are high, but he attaches no emotional value to it. “Freedom is tens of thousands of times more important in this case.”

The Russian could count on the cooperation of several artist and art collector friends for his stunt. For example, there was Giampaolo Abbondio, who supplied the Picasso with his gallery in Milan. “’Are you crazy?’ I thought at first. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that one Assange is more important to the world than another Picasso. I am an optimist by nature, in my mind I have only lent the work. And if Assange is released, I will get it back.”

“A Picasso can range from 10,000 to 100 million euros. However, the number of zeros is not relevant if a human life also hangs in the balance.”

Artist Franko B made one of his best works available. “It’s close to my heart, so I certainly didn’t choose something that happened to be in the corner of my studio. Freedom and censorship are central. It’s just a small gesture compared to what Assange has to endure.”

Molodkin is not ready for his test piece. Last year he made headlines by smearing 25 of Prince Harry’s autobiographies with human blood. A bold statement, after the royal admitted that he had killed 25 Taliban fighters during his service in Afghanistan. In 2022, he had also filled a glass portrait of Vladimir Putin with the blood of Ukrainian soldiers.