No one has ever really come out and said it, but former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had good taste when it came to art, guns, wine and apparently dinner wear. His dinner plates were used by an arts group here in New York City for a special art project about...well dinner plates. Now the plates have been returned to the people of Iraq.
[WNYC]
Artist Michael Rakowitz, who is Jewish and of Iraqi descent, had seen the dinner plates once belonging to Saddam Hussein on sale on eBay and he had wanted to do a project involving Iraqi date syrup. Thus, a collaborative art project was born, one which he dubbed "Spoils."
Working with Chef Kevin Lasko of Park Avenue Autumn, Rakowitz served “Spoils” on the looted plates he bought on eBay. On the dishes was an Iraqi desert known as Debes wa Rashi (Date Syrup mixed with Tahini) served as a base for a venison dish — think American deer hunt meets Iraqi date harvest.
