Posted: February.04.2005 at 11:41am | IP Logged

In the latest issue of "The Stranger" newspaper there is an article written by Erica Barnett and Nate Lippens detailing a group of "hipsters" who call themselves Fillistine. Fillistine apparently thinks it's funny to steal artist's work from various galleries around town because in their words and opinion it is the "worst crap they could find". They also intend to host an art show featuring these works and return them to the artists at this time. ONE PROBLEM---NO ONE will host them because the artwork is STOLEN!!! This means the artists that had their works stolen may never get them back!

This is outrageous!! These jerks should be arrested, and that is my intent with this post.

IF YOU ARE AN ARTIST THAT HAS HAD ANY OF YOUR PIECES STOLEN WHILE HAVING A SHOW IN THE PAST YEAR---I URGE YOU TO FILE A POLICE REPORT IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY!   To file a Police report in Seattle call (206) 625-5011 press 2, then 8.


NEXT I urge you to contact the following people who have information about this group but are not forthcoming with this information. If enough people contact them maybe this group can be outed.

Matthew Richter (206) 381-3218 (director of Consolidated Works gallery-who
considered hosting the show by Fillistine--he also knows the identity of
the group)

Erica Barnett or Nate Lippens of "The Stranger" (206) 323-7101
both of these authors know the identity of the theives but refuse to
divulge the information.  Further more, Erica Barnett of the Stranger possesses a LIST of the artists that have had their art stolen! I encourage you to contact her and demand that she hand the list and the identity of the theives over to the Seattle Police !  

I now have a contact email for the thieves known as Fillistine:
fillistineplustwo@yahoo.com

I encourage you to email the group and tell them just how irresponsible and stupid they are for stealing other artists' work. Also I encourage you to demand of them to return the works immediately!!


I had artwork of my own stolen while having a show recently and now I can't be sure if it was this group or not. To add insult to injury, the piece that was stolen was going to be purchased by a patron! Quite frankly I'm paranoid to hang my art anywhere again. The actions that Fillistine carry out not only hurts artists, but galleries as well. What artist is going to want to hang at a gallery that has been struck by this group?
If you have any questions, information, or comments--please feel free to contact me.
Thank you.