Sculpture and the Box Office An ice-cream merchant, who had
them off a popcorn dealer, is advertising three statues by Epstein for sale. He acquired them with the other assets of a Blackpool fun-fair, and they include the seven foot high figure of Adam, which aroused so much controversy when it was first exhibited that an enterprising showman bought it and put it in a side-show. Insured for £30,000, Adam toured the United States and South Africa:and at the height of his fame was drawing 50,000 people a week in London. Mr. Epstein's reported comment on the proposed sale is " I am disgusted with the commercialisation of my art. . . . Adam and the others should be in a museum, where people can see them and learn to appreciate art without any sordid commercial deals." One sees what he means, of course; but I think that if I had produced three statues twenty years ago and sold them (as Mr. Epstein did) for E4,000, and if I knew that since then hundreds of thousands of people had paid money—from whatever motive—to see them and that they were still front-page news today, I doubt whether disgust would, be the sentiment uppermost in my mind.
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