John McAdams has an interesting post about a group of activists in Germany who want to tear down or destroy Nazi era statues at Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
The question of handling art produced under totalitarian regimes from artists that supported the regime is a tricky one.
Similar to the controversy over the statues of Arno Breker is the more famous (infamous?) Leni Riefenstahl. Nobody can deny her talent, but the service she did to the Hitler regime has made her films off-limits to most of the public, including her work after 1945.
Abolishing the art of the past will not ease the suffering of the victims of the Nazi era. But must we celebrate those artists?
