“Don McAulay – Charlie Watts’ drum tech for ten years pays tribute to Charlie for his birthday, placing the key on his drums where Charlie always would before each show. Happy birthday Charlie, we miss you”, was the message they posted on the band’s official networks, along with a video in which McAulay is seen leading the drums. Watts died on August 24, 2021 at age 80. A few days earlier, Watts had pulled out of the world tour due to his health condition.
Privileges
Being part of the Rolling Stones, the most famous and oldest band in the world, has many benefits, such as access to works of art at a distance that is usually closed to the general public, a privilege that Mick Jagger took advantage of during his time in Spain to closely contemplate the famous “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso in the Reina Sofía Museum, who had to go out and give explanations for this prerogative that a few years ago also benefited the actor Pierce Brosnan. The renowned Madrid museum opened the doors of its majestic rooms to an exclusive visitor and his entourage, precisely on the day it is usually closed to the general public: there was no need to confirm versions because the band’s singer himself was in charge of uploading a selection of photographs to his social networks where he is seen posing in front of the jewel of the Reina Sofía.
The problem is that the museum’s rules forbid any visitor to be photographed with the painting. “It is allowed to take photographs without a flash, without a tripod, without a mobile phone pole or any other stabilizing element of photographic cameras in all venues, except in places where otherwise indicated. It is not allowed to take photographs in the entire room 206 (Guernica). It is also not possible for visitors to take professional and/or private photographs in the Museum outside of museum activity, or to record images”, it is explained on the website of the space.
The controversy did not take long to break out in the same space where the images had been broadcast. “Demigod advantage,” some pointed out. “They almost ripped my hand off the day I tried to photograph Guernica. But I’m not Mick Jagger, of course,” said another user. Now, the Reina Sofía had to go out to explain publicly and maintained that one of the reasons for not allowing photos in front of the painting is “the quality of the visit”. The art gallery maintains that the norm was not issued to protect the work but to improve the comfort of visitors and they allege that the painting does not suffer because the most frequent cameras are those of the cell phone and do not use the flash. Nor is it due to a question of rights, since the work is one of the most reproduced in the Spanish imaginary and artistic space without them receiving any compensation.
“It is a question of the quality of the visit, because people stayed for a quarter of an hour taking photos or the selfie sticks hit other people,” museum sources indicated. The image they describe is the one that appears every day in front of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in the Louvre: dozens of people crowded in front of the painting. The museum also warned that they receive millions of visits every day and that they do not persecute “everyone who wants to take a picture.” And much less the leader of the Rolling Stones.
Source: Ambito
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