The Pentagon is reviewing how it handles artwork made by those detained in Guantanamo Bay, after a New York City art exhibit in October featured 36 paintings and sculptures by prisoners, according to The New York Times.
"My clients were told that their art would no longer be processed for release. And then one of my clients was told that, even if he were ever to be released, that he would not be able to take his art with him, and that it would be incinerated," said Ramzi Kassem, a professor whose legal clinic represents three Guantanamo detainees, The Times reported.
Ode to the Sea, an exhibit at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, featured paintings, drawings, and sculptures by eight men who had been detained at Guantanamo. Out of the eight, only four have been released, the newspaper said.
All Guantanano detainees' artwork is "property of the U.S. government," according to Air Force Maj. Ben Sakrisson, according to the Miami Herald.
A curator of the art exhibit, Erin L. Thompson, said the only paintings that were for sale were from artists that had been cleared and released from Guantanamo.
"The idea of trying to dispirit someone by destroying what they've made, even if the subject is, on its surface, innocuous, is very common in warfare," Thompson said, the Times reported.
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