White Nationalist Charles Krafft's Views Holocaust As New Religion

THE STRANGER
By Jen Craves

"Hitler Idaho" was purchased by a Jewish collector,
now dead, who later gave it to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

WASHINGTON---The question is hard to get your head around: If Charles Krafft is a Holocaust denier, what does that say about his revered artwork? How should collectors and curators—or anyone who sees his work— reassess his art in light of what he's been saying lately? Krafft, an elder of Seattle art, is a provocateur. He makes ceramics out of human cremains, perfume bottles with swastika stoppers, wedding cakes frosted with Third Reich insignias. In 2003, Krafft made a ceramic teapot in the shape of a bust of Hitler, with eerie holes for eyes. A Jewish collector named Sandy Besser, now dead, bought the Hitler teapot and added it to his overtly politically themed collection, which he later donated to FAMSF, where it was exhibited in 2007. What does it mean that when Krafft made this portrait of a demonized Hitler, he was actually beginning to spread the word that the demonization of Hitler has been greatly exaggerated? Another question: Will the museum get rid of the Krafft? [link]