A representative for Courtney Love has struck against an Australian performance artist’s claims that she is in possession of the remainder of Kurt Cobain’s ashes, saying that the remains of the former Nirvana singer were never actually taken.
In June, Love went public with the news that her late husband’s ashes were stolen from her Los Angeles home, along with thousands of dollars worth of clothes and jewelry. Love was apparently storing them in a pink bear-shaped handbag in her closet, which she claimed a friend had swiped.
At the time the story broke, Love said, “I can’t believe anyone would take Kurt’s ashes from me. They were all I had left of my husband. Now it feels like I have lost him all over again.” However, the theft was never confirmed, and most of Cobain’s ashes had previously been scattered at a New York Buddhist temple and in Washington’s Wishkah River.
Things got more bizarre on Wednesday when artist Natascha Stellmach said that she had somehow come into possession of the ashes and planned to smoke them at an exhibit at Berlin’s Galerie Wagner + Partner, as part of an art piece entitled “I Just Wanted You To Love Me.”
Alan Nierob, speaking on behalf of Love, now says the remains “were never taken.”
For her part, photographer-painter-videographer Stellmach told Art World magazine that smoking the ashes in a joint was “a chance to release Cobain into the ether from the media circus.” But many skeptics think the stunt is just her ploy for jumping into that very same frenzy. ―Aidin Vaziri