Biblical Art Treasures Face Being Sold Because of Lack of Diversity

(NewsReady.com) – Officials across the world have made changes since the massive global protests after the murder of American George Floyd in 2020. The year after his death, the city council in Oxford, England, created an “Anti-Racism Charter” and pledged to target discrimination. A council member is now targeting paintings in a building that’s more than a century old.

Councilwoman Katherine Miles proposed the sale of three artworks she thinks are “inappropriate,” according to The Telegraph. She claimed they aren’t appropriate for the council’s “progressive” agenda. She cited “gender-based violence” depicted in one of the paintings, animal cruelty, and too many white men. The councilwoman said they should sell the paintings for about £284,000 ($353,340) and use the money to purchase new artwork that “rebalance the lack of diversity” in the 120-year-old town hall.

Our culture continues to be dismantled by nobodies, morons and philistines.

Why Oxford city council may sell its ‘inappropriate’ biblical paintings https://t.co/s1tT2GeM48

— Peter Whittle (@prwhittle) March 31, 2023

Miles wants to sell a painting that depicts the Rape of the Sabine Women. This was an incident that occurred in Roman mythology. According to the myth, Roman men carried out a mass kidnapping of young women who were then told to marry their abductors.

Another of the paintings shows Salome, a Jewish princess, holding the decapitated head of John the Baptist. He was a Roman-born preacher who is considered to be one of God’s prophets. According to the Bible, he was beheaded by King Herod.

The final piece of art that Miles wants to sell is a sculpture of a fox hunt. However, that one is not actually on display in town hall at the moment.

The city council hasn’t discussed Miles’ proposal. The council is controlled by the Labour Party, but she is a Liberal Democrat. It’s unclear whether the others are going to support her attempts to make the council more diverse. The council has suggested it doesn’t have any idea what its position is on the matter at this time.