Channel 4 slammed as it buys painting by HITLER for ‘problematic artists’ show with Jimmy Carr

Channel 4 has been slammed after it announced it has bought a painting by Adolf Hitler and will ask a studio audience if comedian Jimmy Carr should destroy it with a flamethrower.

Among other purchases it has made for its new show, Art Trouble, are works by several “problematic” artists, including convicted pedophile Rolf Harris, sexual abuser Eric Gill and misogynist Pablo Picasso.

The station said the new show, due out later this month, will discuss whether an artwork can be separated from the artist before deciding whether to destroy it.

C4’s boss insisted it will celebrate a long tradition of “iconoclasm and irreverence” on the channel, which turns 40 next month.

Channel 4 has been shut down after announcing that it has bought a painting by Adolf Hitler

“There are advocates for every piece of art,” Channel 4 program director Ian Katz said in an interview with the guard.

“So you have an advocate for Hitler. There will be someone who argues not for Hitler, but for the fact that his moral character should not decide whether a work of art exists or not.’

He added that if the studio audience chose to save Hitler’s painting, it would not hang in the broadcaster’s boardroom, but would be disposed of “properly.”

“There are pros for every piece of art,” Channel 4 program director Ian Katz told The Guardian

Journalist and anti-Semitism activist Jonathan Sacerdoti told LBC he believes the show is an “absolutely sick piece of entertainment television” and a “desperate plea for attention.”

Historian and author Rebecca Rideal also ripped into the show, tweeting in response, “This is grotesque.”

‘Making light entertainment out of deep trauma? C4 should be ashamed. In terms of integrity, that picture of Jimmy Carr says it all,” she said of a promotional image for the show that showed Carr grinning while holding up a hammer.

Other social media users also expressed their fear about the program’s design.

One Twitter user described it as “really scraping the bottom of the barrel,” while another stunned tweeter wrote “who was smoking what when they came up with this.”

Another warned: “Channel 4 needs to rethink this… I have a feeling it’s going to provoke a reaction they weren’t expecting. Be careful folks.’

Channel 4 reportedly hired an art expert to buy the works ‘from reputable auction houses’, although the attribution of Hitler’s art has long been questioned.

Meanwhile, people wondered why Channel 4 would “even consider hanging a portrait of Hitler in their boardroom”.

The station reportedly hired an art expert to buy the works “from reputable auction houses,” although the attribution of Hitler’s art has long been questioned.

Picasso’s work that could be destroyed is a vase rather than a painting due to budget constraints.

Stand-up comic and 8 out of 10 Cats presenter Carr has been labeled a ‘problematic’ figure in recent months.

Commenting in his latest stand-up special on Netflix, His Dark Material, Carr called the murder of “thousands of Gypsies” a “positive” of the Holocaust.

Before that, in his September 2021 book Before & Laughter, he referred to the 1997 film Life is Beautiful, about an Italian father and son who are sent to a Nazi concentration camp.

Carr said, ‘How could they make a Holocaust movie that was funny? Well, because that shit happened. And I think it’s okay to joke about the Holocaust.’

The jokes were labeled as “dehumanizing” by one campaigner and “unacceptable” by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.