Russian artist to sell blood-smeared copies of Prince Harry's 'Spare' memoir in UK after Taliban 'chess-piece' comments

8 April 2023, 13:26

A Russian artist is planning to sell blood-soaked copies of Prince Harry's memoir 'Spare' in a criticism of the duke's comments about killing people in Afghanistan.

Andrey Molodkin's stunt 'Blood Money' is in response to Harry's "boasts" of killing Taliban fighters in the book, which the artist called "a sorry tale".

The blood-stained editions are going on sale in a shop in Windsor on Saturday. They will also be available a/political, an arts organisation in Kennington, south London, on May 2, Sky News reported.

This is not the first time Mr Molodkin has used the theme of blood in public art to criticise Harry for his Taliban comments.

He projected a blood-filled sculpture onto the side of St Paul's Cathedral in London, reportedly featuring blood donated by Afghans, on March 29.

The left-over blood is now being used for the books. Mr Molodkin said any revenue would go to charities supporting Afghans.

In a statement, Mr Molodkin said: "Prince Harry boasts of killing Taliban like they're baddies in a video game, 'otherising' human life then cashing in on the sorry tale to sell books about his drug binging, sexual exploits and killing conquests."

Harry has been criticised for saying in his memoir that he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan. He wrote that it "wasn't a number that gave me any satisfaction... but neither was it a number that made me feel ashamed".

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The Duke of Sussex said that he thought of the people he killed as "chess pieces" that he was removing from the board, rather than people.

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He wrote: "While in the heat and fog of combat, I didn't think of those 25 as people. You can't kill people if you think of them as people. You can't really harm people if you think of them as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bads taken away before they could kill Goods."

Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, defence secretary Ben Wallace said: "I frankly think boasting about tallies or talking about tallies... It distorts the fact that the army is a team game.

"It's a team enterprise… and so it's not about who can shoot the most or who doesn't shoot the most… that's just my personal view.”

Mr Molodkin is no stranger to provocative artwork in general, having filled up a replica World Cup with oil in response to the tournament being played in Qatar.