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Jimmy Carr may destroy art by Hitler and Rolf Harris in new programme

Jimmy Carr will host<em> Art Trouble</em>. (Getty)
Jimmy Carr will host Art Trouble. (Getty)

Jimmy Carr may destroy a painting by Adolf Hitler on a TV show.

Channel 4 has apparently bought artwork by "problematic" figures such as the dictator and disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris.

A studio audience on the show Art Trouble will then get to decide whether they should be destroyed by 8 Out Of 10 Cats host Carr, after debating whether art can be separated from the person who created it.

Read more: Jeremy Clarkson defends Jimmy Carr's 'career ending' Holocaust joke

If the audience elects to destroy the pieces, they will be shredded.

The star could end up destroying art on the show. (Netflix)
The star could end up destroying art on the show. (Netflix)

The Guardian quoted Ian Katz, Channel 4’s director of programming, as saying: "There are advocates for each piece of art.

"So you’ve got an advocate for Hitler.

"There’ll be someone arguing not for Hitler, but for the fact that his moral character should not decide whether or not a piece of art exists or not."

Art Trouble was announced earlier this year, with Channel 4 saying it would be "an arts event like no other".

Adolf Hitler arrivant à Hambourg entoure d officiers S.S. avec à sa gauche le Reichssfhrer Heinrich Himmler, pour sa campagne électorale, en 1936. (Photo by KEYSTONE-FRANCE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Channel 4 has purchased art by Hitler. (KEYSTONE-FRANCE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

"A profoundly provocative exploration of the limits of free expression in art, and whether we can separate the moral calibre of the artist from the value of their work," they said.

"Combining stunts, surprises and special guests with a public experiment conducted by well-known artists across Britain, Art Trouble celebrates C4’s disruptive roots by exploring the boundary between controversial art and freedom of expression."

Rolf Harris, 87, arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London where he denies four counts of indecent assault relating to three teenagers who allege he molested them in the 1970s and 1980s.
Art by Rolf Harris will apparently be included. (PA)

The channel said the programme would look at what we should do with historic art we find "offensive" or that was by an artist who has since been "cancelled".

Read more: Carr's genocide joke is 'deeply disturbing' and 'unacceptable'

Carr, 50, came under fire this year after making a controversial joke about the Holocaust.

In his Netflix special - His Dark Material - the comedian joked that people "never mention the thousands of Gypsies killed by the Nazis" because "no one wants to talk about the positives".

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