The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Storm in Haifa: the estate of the artist Gershon Knispel was thrown into the street - voila! culture

2023-02-06T13:55:40.069Z


The estate that was thrown into the street included sketches, lithographs, personal items, letters and albums: Haifa Municipality: "The collected items were transferred to the city archive"


Knispel's estate is thrown in the street (photo: screenshot, Facebook)

The estate of the artist Gershon Knispel, who passed away four and a half years ago, was dumped this week on Pevzner Street in Haifa after the dismantling of his studio located there.

The estate that was thrown into the street included sketches, lithographs, personal belongings, letters and photo albums.

There was an uproar on the internet after the estate was thrown into the street: "These things should go as a cultural asset to the archive, and not to the pavement in Hadar," wrote the artist Shira Kino Arad in a viral post she published on Facebook.



The Haifa Municipality stated that yesterday evening, it was brought to the attention of one of the employees of the Culture Department of the Haifa Municipality, that the contents of Knispel's private studio had been turned into the street.

"Despite the fact that it is not an asset or city property, municipal employees, out of a sense of obligation, went to the place, in order to identify items of cultural and historical value, which are important to be preserved in the city archives.



Later, the teams of the SFA Division also arrived at the scene, in order to assist in the work, but due to the large number of items and the weather conditions, it was not possible to evacuate the contents in full to a safe place.

The Municipality of Haifa appreciates the work of the artist Gershon Knispel, who was one of the most important artists who worked in the city, influenced the public space in it and was even a municipal employee, and is saddened by the case, in which historical cultural assets were thrown into the street.

The collected items were transferred to the city archive, where they will be stored and carefully preserved."



By the time the city employees arrived, many items had been taken from the place by passers-by and by art seekers who heard about the bargain and came especially.

Gershon Knispel was a painter and sculptor who was considered one of the top Israeli artists in the second half of the 20th century.

Throughout his sixty years of artistic activity, he created sculptures, drawings, prints, paintings and more, which won him prizes at the international biennales in Berlin, Moscow and Sao Paulo.



Many of his works hang around Haifa, among them the stonework on top of the Paz Bridge, the relief on the front of the sports hall in Romema and the monument to the Jewish fighter in World War II.

One of his works was a relief on the wall of the Municipal High School in Haifa.

In 2012, after several tiles from the relief fell, the municipality removed the work and threw it away.

As a result, Knispel sued the municipality.

The district court awarded him compensation of NIS 533,920 plus legal expenses. The municipality appealed, and the Supreme Court awarded compensation of NIS 460,000.

  • culture

Tags

  • Haifa

Source: walla

All tech articles on 2023-02-06

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.