World Of Tourism

I consider myself to be pretty open minded. I try and look at every idea I'm presented with from different angles and then come to my own conclusions or opinions. I believe in UFO's, I like to read about conspiracy theories and I'm toying with the idea of reptilian shapeshifters (long story) presented by the world renowned Davide Icke but there are some things in this world I just cant' wrap my head around.

Gunther Van Hogens is a man with some freaky ideas on art. If you havent heard of him, consider yourself lucky. I was eating a bowl of Kelloggs Corn Flakes when I came across his story and let's just say my appetite went right out the window. His claim to fame, if I can even call it that, is using human corpses in his art pieces. He rearranges them in different poses, can anyone say Ted Bundy reincarnated?? He describes himself as a plastinator because he removes the fluids and fats from bodies and replaces it with plastic resin. Pause for effect....

He performed a public autopsy in 2002, the first in over 170 years in Britain and once again he's causing a stir with a new exhibition that's going to be shown in Berlin, The Cycle Of Life. In one piece, he has two corpses in a pose that let's say is frowned upon in public. Yes you guessed it, getting it on from beyond the grave or platform in this case. Tasteless joke, forgive me.

Don't get me wrong, this is no joke, people are up in arms about this, saying it's indecent and offensive and I cant help but agree but what I find funny is the fact that a person can actually get away with things like this, all in the name of art. Religion and art people, it's the way forward in getting what you want and not having to pay the consequences. Admittedly, that was a stab at religion, one of the many conspiracy theories that I've been reading lately but back to the Plastinator, the man is clearly not well and needs to be evaluated by a professional, I'm all for freedom of artistic expression but isn't this crossing a line?

I don't actually know, Leonardo Da Vinci, a man of vision and genius was considered deranged in his time but he was experimenting to find out about the human body, something they didnt know too much about back then, what's the Plastinator's excuse? All I know for sure is HE'LL BE BACK. I know, I know.....

Picasso's 1938 piece "La Fille de l'artiste a deux ans et demi avec un bateau" is up for auction, it's a masterpeice depiciting his daughter, aged two at the time, holding a toy boat. Maya was the daughter of Picasso's young mistress, Marie-Therese Walter.

Like many of his favourite portraits of family members, the piece remained in Picasso's personal collection for 35 years until his death in 1973. Since then it's been in a private collection, since the 1980s actually.

The painting has never been offered at auction before and the Sotheby's exhibition is its first public showing in London, it's all very exciting!

Emmanuel Di-Donna, Vice Chairman of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide said: "This life-affirming portrait reflects the great joy that Maya brought into the artist's life, even on the eve of the Second World War."

Very touching...not to mention pricey! Want to know how much this portrait is going to go for?It is estimated to fetch between £10.7m to £16m next month. A second Picasso work travelling to London is "Nature Morte", estimated at £3.4m to £4.8m.

The exhibition is a preview of Sotheby's major sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York on May 5.