The UK government is fighting to keep a sculpture of a terrifying man-faced crab within the bounds of the country after it was purchased by a foreigner buyer.
The ceramic anthropomorphic crab, made by London pottery manufacturers the Martin Brothers in 1880, has been placed under an export bar by arts minister Rebecca Pow, in the hopes that a local buyer will match the $477,374 asking price.
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In a statement, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport described the piece as “a striking example of Robert Wallace Martin’s grotesque sculpture“, representing “one of the earliest known pieces of sculptural Martinware“.
Pow argued that keeping the sculpture in the UK was of cultural and artistic importance. “The Martin Brothers are famous for creating unique and unusual works that are entertaining yet at the same time unsettling, which makes the crab with teeth such a whimsical and eclectic treasure,” she said in a statement. “I hope that a buyer can be found so we can keep this work in this country to inspire future generations of potters.”
Sir Hayden Phillips, chairman of the Reviewing Committee (an independent body that advises the department), said that just because it’s ugly doesn’t mean that it’s not important. “A truly grotesque creature, it represents the pinnacle of their work, and we also concluded that it was of outstanding aesthetic importance reflecting the fact that this criterion does not necessarily imply that an object has to be beautiful to pass that test,” he said. “This crab is of a quality and scale lacking in UK public collections and I hope one of them will come forward to give it a good home so it does not disappear again.”
The temporary ban on the expert was placed after a request from the Reviewing Committee, and will be reviewed in September, with an option to extend the decision until December if a “serious intention to raise funds to purchase it” is being undertaken.
The department has said that public bodies at less than the asking price may also be considered, if you happen to be a public body in the UK with money to burn and an interest in ceramic crabs.
