A Romanian art school wants 70% of students’ earnings. Artists are fighting back by showing 30% of each work

Romanian art students and artists have dismantled their own artworks for a new exhibition that showed only 30 per cent of each drawing, installation, or painting.

The show was a protest against new rules from the National University of Arts in Bucharest (UNArte), which requires students to give 70 per cent of any money they earn from art during their studies to the institution.

Organised by the independent gallery Cazul 101 and the platform Nevăzuții (or The Unseen), the exhibition included works donated by established artists such as Geta Brătescu and Dan Perjovschi, in addition to a dozen other artists and students.

The remaining 70 per cent of the exhibited works were donated to the university of 8 May as an act of protest.

“I thought the decision was immoral and offensive,” Robert Bajenaru, the exhibition curator told The Calvert Journal. “I am not a student anymore, but some of the artists I work with are, and I had to get involved,” he added.

Following media outrage and a petition signed by more than 7,000 people, the university senate will re-open negotiations on the decision on 15 April.