Artist: I'll Destroy Masterpieces if Assange Dies in Prison

A Russian dissident artist living in France says he has gathered 16 artworks worth an estimated $45 million—and they will be destroyed if Julian Assange dies in prison. Andrei Molodkin says the artworks in the "Dead Man's Switch" project, including masterpieces by Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol, are being stored in a 29-ton safe in his studio, Sky News reports. He says the safe also holds two barrels—one containing acid powder and one containing an accelerator—and their contents will be mixed, destroying the paintings, if a 24-hour timer runs out. Molodkin says the safe is being locked on Friday, and the timer will be reset daily when someone close to the WikiLeaks founder confirms he is alive.

Assange, who has been held in London's Belmarsh Prison for almost five years, will have his final appeal against extradition to the US heard at the High Court in London next week. If he is extradited, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison under the Espionage Act for leaking military and diplomatic documents. Molodkin tells the Guardian that he doesn't believe he will have to destroy the artworks. "I believe that Assange will be free and all the collectors and artists who have donated their work did so because they believe he will not die in prison." He says he wants the project, which is supported by Assange's wife, Stella, to start a discussion of why "destroying the life of people means nothing but destroying art is a huge taboo in the world."

Molodkin says the longer Assange is behind bars, "the less freedom of speech or freedom of expressions we have in the world." Italian art gallery owner Giampaolo Abbondio says he donated a Picasso to the project. "It got me round to the idea that it's more relevant for the world to have one Assange than an extra Picasso, so I decided to accept," he tells Sky News. "Let's say I'm an optimist and I've lent it. If Assange goes free, I can have it back." A New Yorker profile describes Molodkin, 59, as "part of a generation of Russian political artists whose work employs shock tactics to rebel against the constraints of their era." (More Julian Assange stories.)