Free speech: ‘Society heading in a totalitarian direction’ says Young
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The picture of Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton, who was the most senior British officer to die at the Battle of Waterloo, has hung at the museum in Cardiff for 100 years. But it will be stored away after being reappraised in light of the Black Lives Matter movement. Huw tweeted: “As a journalist I feel uneasy about this element of ‘censoring’ history. Should not Picton remain on display as a reminder to Wales of an aspect of its past – no matter how disgraceful?”
Kath Davies, the museum’s director of collections, said: “We’ve always recognised Picton’s history is difficult, it’s complex, it’s controversial and we wanted to work with young people for them to decide how they wanted to reflect on that history and how they want to interpret that portrait.”
Picton, also known as the Tyrant of Trinidad, is notorious for his cruel treatment of slaves with execution and mutilation.
He used the trade to build up his fortune and in 1806 was found guilty of torturing Luisa Calderon, a 14-year-old mixed race girl, while governing the island.
Curators are handing artists a £12,000 commission to produce artworks reinterpreting Picton from the view of his victims.
His picture will be replaced by Hedger and Ditcher: Portrait of William Lloyd, by Albert Houthuesen, a Dutch artist fascinated by the working life of Flintshire coalminers in the 1930s.
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