Andrea Ferrero, a dealer at the Peruvian commercial gallery, Revolver, has withdrawn from showing at this year’s Art Lima fair (23-26 April) in protest against the “attacks against freedom of expression” by the city’s mayor, Luis Castañeda Lossio.
The mayor’s department has suspended events including a performing arts festival, a weekly rock concert and the monthly “museum night” in Lima and, according to Reuters, admitted in March that he is overseeing the removal of 20 murals that were painted in the city’s downtown district between 2011 and 2014 (three have already been covered with yellow paint).
The art fair had signed a sponsorship agreement with the Municipality of Lima, which was made public on 17 March, but released a subsequent statement saying that the tie-up had been discontinued as it was “not well received by our artistic community”. However, Ferrero says, “the damage is done.”
