Posted by ricardo dominguez on February 19, 1997 at 12:52:30:
Mexican artist claims kidnappers forced him to paint a nude
Feb. 18, 1997 17:57 EST
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A Mexican artist seized at gunpoint off the
street says his kidnappers forced him to paint a nude portrait of a
wealthy woman.
Witnesses saw armed men seize Niceforo Urbieta off a street in the
southern city of Oaxaca on Feb. 11. He wasn't heard from for four
days.
Relatives and friends feared Urbieta, who was imprisoned in the
1970s for links to militant leftist groups, had been kidnapped for
political reasons. His case won attention in national newspapers.
But in an interview published Tuesday in the newspaper La Jornada,
Urbieta said his captors were interested in his art, not his
politics.
He said he was picked up off the street, covered in a cloth and
driven to a ``run of the mill'' room, where the kidnappers told him
why they wanted him.
``This is a whim,'' Urbieta quoted the kidnappers as telling him.
``There is a very rich lady who likes your painting a lot ... and
she wants you to paint her.''
Urbieta said he was given paintbrushes and forced to look through a
hole in the wall at the model, who would pose nude for about an hour
at a time.
``It was totally absurd. Like a voyeur I had to look at her through
that hole and paint her,'' he said. ``She never spoke.''
He described her as a young woman with long black hair ``and a very
well-formed body.''
He said the captors eventually took him back to Oaxaca.
Authorities would not comment on the case