Art dealer furious after being forced to cover up swear word on painting in shop window

An art dealer in Brentwood, Essex, says it is "bonkers" a police officer visited his gallery after a single complaint was made about a painting in his window that featured the word f*ck. John Brandler, who owns Brandler Galleries has had a Shakespearean Much Ado About Nothing parody by the Connor Brothers in his window for a month. The £7,500 picture, called A Load Of Fuss About F*ck All, had the F-word clearly displayed.



But that all changed when a police officer came to ask him to cover up the word after one person, who the officer said was a woman, lodged a complaint. Mr Brandler, 60, who has owned the gallery for more than 30 years, fumed: "There are 60,000 people in Brentwood and one person can object to something and by law it has to be removed. I think it is f*cking bonkers. Someone has gone by my window and complained because she found it offensive. One person can override 60,000.

"So we now have a piece of paper over f*ck and the police are happy with that but what a waste of police time. He had to photograph that we had covered it so he could show that he had done his job. Is that what we pay the police for? One woman, who has no sense of humour and probably does not understand that Shakespearean reference, overrides the sense of humour of 60,000 people. Why not just come in and say 'I found that offensive' or phone me? But the important point is, because of data protection, nobody is allowed to tell me who is she is.



"But I publicly can be attacked but she cannot be identified. It's still in my front window. I did not want to get arrested for non-compliance." But he admitted there was a silver lining as the piece of white paper is now positioned in such a way that it draws more intrigue as to what the word is. "She is actually helping me – if you make someone want to look at it and if they want to work it out, it makes them feel good," he said. An Essex Police spokeswoman said: "Police were called with reports of an offensive word written on some art displayed in a window. Officers attended and spoke to the shop owner who agreed to cover the offensive word."