By DPA,
Copenhagen: A watercolour by the Danish newspaper cartoonist who caused outrage among Muslims worldwide in 2006 has raised $19,000 for the benefit of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, media reports said Sunday.
Kurt Westergaard’s non-political watercolour with various motifs was sold at an online auction organised by a gallery in Skanderborg, western Denmark, the Politiken newspaper reported.
Interest was so high that the gallery’s email server went down, so there could perhaps be even higher bids, Galleri Draupner owner Erik Guldager told the newspaper.
Guldager offered to stage the auction after auctioneers Lauritz.com earlier this week said it would not sell the water colour over fears for its staff’s security.
Westergaard, 74, is best known for his controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. It was one of 12 images published in September 2005 by the newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
The cartoons sparked outrage among Muslims and violent protests worldwide in early 2006. Westergaard has since been the target of several assassination plots. A Somali-born man was arrested Jan 1 for breaking into the cartoonist’s home in western Denmark and threatening him.