EXHIBITORS of a world-famous rhinoceros horn sculpture by the late German artist Joseph Beuys claimed yesterday that they did not know the horns were real until Agriculture and Fisheries Department (AFD) officials turned up to confiscate them on Friday.
Consuls from 15 member states of the European Union, said to be upset at what they see as bureaucratic interference in the arts, plan to meet today to discuss the controversy.
'Beuys would have liked this incident,' Spanish Consul-General Enrique Iranzo said last night. 'He was a provocateur. Maybe we are playing his game.' The sculpture, consisting of two rhino horns connected by blood-filled plastic tubing, was removed from the main stand at the Young Art in Germany After Beuys exhibition at the Arts Centre Pao Galleries on Friday after the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) asked the department to investigate.
All rhino horn brought into Hong Kong must have a permit from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and an import licence from the Hong Kong Government.
Dr Uwe Nischke, the director of sponsoring group the Goethe Institut, said the exhibit had the correct export permits but he did not realise a special import permit was needed.
'All the documentation, the bill of lading, the catalogues, gave no idea what it was.