Sleight of Hand, 2023-2024
Two-channel video installation
Colour, sound, 8’43’’

Testing the boundaries of the law, London-based Brazilian artist Ilê Sartuzi performed a sleight of hand, temporarily “stealing” a historical coin from the collection of the British Museum. After more than a year of planning, the artist secretly exchanged a 1645 silver coin minted in Newark during the English Civil War with a fake replica. With the coin under his possession, the artist left Room 68 – the money section of the British Museum – and went downstairs to deposit the object in the donation box of the museum.
Beyond the provocations of incorporating this figure of the trickster, thinking about sleight of hand as a form, misdirection as procedure and stealing as art; this project raises debates around value, property, the historical violence of law and its role in legitimizing looting as a tool for the foundation of “universal museums” such as the institution in question. By returning the coin to the donation box of the museum, it not only denounces these infamous imperialist bases of said institutions but opens a speculation about the organization of this infrastructure and its administration.
The fact that the artist chose a coin as the target object of this heist points to an interest in the nature of money as a social construct and medium of exchange that is based on a “leap of faith”. This fetishistic character of money as a form is closely related with the experience of the “momentary suspension of disbelief” that is the basis of magic.

SELECTION OF ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

Mateus Nunes – Did Ilê Sartuzi Rob the British Museum? (Frieze)
Oliver Basciano – How to Steal from the British Museum – a Brazilian’s Artist Guide (ArtReview)
Evan Moffitt – Another object has been stolen from the British Museum but this time by an artist (The Art Newspaper)
Sarah Huertes – Art Student Pulls Off a (Very Brief) Coin Heist at the British Museum (The New York Times)
Nadia Khomami – Brazilian artist swaps historical coin in British Museum for a fake (The Guardian)
Pierre D’Alancaisez – Art as Collateral (The Critic)
Brandon Sward – Brazilian Conceptual Artist Steals Historic Coin From the British Museum (Hyperallergic)