Preserve of the modern artist

Your piece about Damien Hirst, Tony Kaye and the potential of preserving a tramp as art, “Why Kaye is down and out on his luck” (MW July 21), is way behind the times.

A few years ago, Plymouth artist Robert Liencowitz caused a sensation by claiming to have preserved his friend, the tramp Diogenes (who was famous for living in a disused pipe) in a block of acrylic.

So far as we know, Diogenes sits in his block in Liencowitz’s studio, although whether anyone else has seen him is debatable.

Even if Liencowitz only pretended to have turned Diogenes into “art”, it can certainly be asserted that the claim in itself was an art form.

Stephen Chipperfield

Chief executive

Hill Murray

London EC1