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Artist Slips AI Print Into National Museum Cardiff, Prompting Swift Removal

He describes the act as 'participation without permission' to probe institutional gatekeeping around AI in art.

Overview

  • National Museum Cardiff said the unauthorized work was removed after staff were alerted by visitors.
  • The print, titled Empty Plate, was hung in the contemporary galleries on October 29 and was seen by a few hundred people, according to the artist.
  • The image shows a boy in a Welsh school uniform with an empty plate and carried a fabricated label presenting it as a signed limited digital print on loan from the artist.
  • Elias Marrow says he sketched the image before using AI to create the final print, framing AI as a legitimate tool in evolving artistic practice.
  • Marrow links the intervention to earlier unsanctioned placements at Tate Modern and Bristol Museum, as some visitors questioned the work’s quality and provenance and no sanctions have been announced.