Letter: Seals of approval

From Mr Waldemar Januszczak

Sir: David Lister (front page, 1 November) suggests that Damien Hirst's Mother and Child Divided has been temporarily removed from the Turner Prize exhibition "with a view, perhaps, to the reaction of others unmentioned - animal rights activists, for instance".

What conspiratorial nonsense! The sculpture is indeed being strengthened by new seals, not because it is any sort of danger to the public, or to protect it from imaginary animal rights protesters, but because it is an important work of British art which all of us want to last not one year or 10 years, but hundreds of years. Art lovers in the future will be just as keen to see Damien Hirst's work as art lovers today.

Yours sincerely,

Waldemar Januszczak

Commissioning Editor

Arts and Music

Channel 4

London, SW1