Channel 4 buys Hitler painting for new show

The show, to be hosted by Jimmy Carr, will see audience members vote on whether to destroy pieces created by “problematic” artists.

Channel 4 has bought art purportedly painted by Adolf Hitler for a new reality show in which audience members will vote on whether the host should destroy the item.

The plan has drawn protests from an antisemitism watchdog, which warned against using Hitler’s artwork for entertainment purposes.

The painting is one of several pieces from “problematic” artists purchased by the UK’s Channel 4 for the show, which will explore whether art can be removed from the person behind it, the channel’s programming director Ian Katz told the Guardian in an interview published Thursday.

Other artwork slated to be used in the show includes pieces by convicted pedophile Rolf Harris and a piece belonging to the famed Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, whose history with women has come under scrutiny in the post #MeToo era, with some criticising his work as misogynistic.

Explaining the show’s concept, Katz said, “There are advocates for each piece of art. So you’ve got an advocate for Hitler. There’ll be someone arguing not for Hitler, but for the fact that his moral character should not decide whether or not a piece of art exists or not.”