Stealing Art As Art

Last summer artwork began disappearing out of galleries and houses in Seattle. Some of it was reported stolen, some not. But it turns out the thefts were part of an art project, an “art show that never happened. The proposed show—called the Repo Show—was to include works by more than a dozen artists, all stolen from galleries and homes by an art collective called Fillistine. The idea, as they described it to us, was to steal the work, then invite the artists to come retrieve it from a local gallery at a one-night, public ‘opening’.”