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Chicago Tribune
"Nature Museum Stamps Out Exhibit"
by Sean D. Hamill
February 2002

This Friday, Chicago artists Michael Hernandez de Luna and Michael Thompson were supposed to attend an opening of "Stamps of a Different Nature," their fake stamp exhibit at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
"It was going to be a great thing, diversifying and taking the art outside the art world," de Luna said.

But Sept. 11 has cast a long shadow, unexpectedly catching the exhibit in its wake, scuttling the show and raising questions about how much controversy a museum should take on.

Three weeks ago, after de Luna and Thompson say a $2,000 contract was signed, a down payment was made and their artwork for the show was completed, the museum told them that show was being canceled.

"This was an exhibit of extremely poor judgment by Mr. Hernandez," said Joe Shacter, the nature museum's director.

Shacter isn't talking about the fake stamps, though they are typically satirical, such as a Japanese-themed "Eat Whale" stamp by Thompson.

The museum was bothered by a stamp de Luna created last fall that grabbed the attention of the U.S. Postal Service, the FBI, Illinois State Police and the U.S. attorney's office.

The 34-cent stamp featured a skull and crossbones and the word "Anthrax" and was mailed on a letter in early October, in the midst of the anthrax fears sweeping the U.S.

The stamp was spotted during sorting in Chicago's main post office downtown, causing a shut-down for several hours while it was investigated.

Postal officials have avoided arresting de Luna and Thompson during the 10 years they have been making the fake stamps, but this time they promised to take serious action, though de Luna has yet to be charged.

De Luna's attorney, federal public defender John Murphy, said that case isn't like other anthrax hoaxes that resulted in arrests across the country. "This is Michael Hernandez de Luna continuing his artwork," he said.

The museum doesn't agree.

"This is way beyond artistic expression in our opinion," said Shacter. "In the light of the events of Sept. 11 and in light of the moving display of 'American Originals' we have starting Friday, we didn't feel Mr. Hernandez used good judgment in doing what he did."

The museum didn't find out about the anthrax stamp issue until early January, when William Elliot III, a nature museum trustee and a member of its exhibit committee, saw a story about it that ran in the Tribune last November.
After a weeklong debate among trustees, Shacter and exhibit Michael Sarna, the museum decided to pull the exhibit.

"The complications weren't worth÷the aggravation with the public and the post office and the other institutions within the city that provide us with funding," Elliot said.

De Luna and Thompson have hired an attorney to recoup the rest of the money they say the museum owes them, and they remain disappointed.

"I think there is just a general disdain there for anything controversial," Thompson said.

Shacter said the nature museum wanted to do the stamp exhibit because it was "edgy and provocative."

But, he said, if the museum ran the exhibit, "I think, frankly, that we would be seen as an institution that also exhibited extremely poor judgment."

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