Demands unmet, Swedish militants decapitate fiberglass cow

A life-sized fiberglass cow, part of "Cow Parade"

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A shadowy group of militant Stockholmers carried out their threat to "execute" a fiberglass life-size cow after their demand that "Cow Parade", an outdoor art exhibit, be dismantled was not met, organizers said.

"We have received the cow cut into pieces in a bag. It's really sad. There's no way of repairing it," Cow Parade spokeswoman Helene Cederberg told AFP.

The Militant Graffiti Artists last week sent an email with a video clip attachment to Swedish daily Aftonbladet showing one of the exhibit's brightly colored cows flanked by two masked militants clad in black and brandishing electric drills as though they were machine guns.

In the video, the militants reportedly demanded that the Cow Parade "be declared non-art, otherwise hostages will be sacrificed".

"As members of Stockholm's Militant Graffiti Artists, we feel it is our moral duty to defend our city against the cows which have invaded our streets," a distorted voice said in the clip, according to Aftonbladet.

The paper on Tuesday published pictures from a new video film depicting how the masked militants decapitated the cow.

The group, which kidnapped the cow nearly three weeks ago, threatened to destroy the artwork unless the 100 or so other cows were removed from the city's streets by noon (1000 GMT) on August 23.

Earlier this month, when the touring exhibition was in Prague, a cow was stolen and feared dumped in the river.

Vandals also attacked dozens of the Cow Parade exhibition's 214 beasts dotted around central Prague, causing damage of around 1 million koruna (31,000 euros, 38,000 dollars), exhibition organisers said.