AN ARTIST has threatened to destroy a collection of 16 masterpieces by the likes of Picasso, Rembrandt and Andy Warhol if Julian Assange dies in prison.

For his latest conceptual art project, Russian-born France resident Andrei Molodkin says he has gathered art he estimates is worth more than £40 million and has threatened to douse it in acid.

Kept in a 29-tonne vault alongside a pneumatic pump that can destroy the works with acid powder and a chemical accelerator, his Dead Man’s Switch project is backed by the WikiLeaks founder’s wife Stella; a 24-hour timer has to be reset by the Assange team before it reaches zero to prevent the corrosive material from being released.

Mr Assange, who exposed US war crimes, is awaiting next week’s final appeal at the High Court against being extradited to the US, where he faces charges under the Espionage Act.

Mr Molodkin made headlines last year after selling blood-soaked copies of Harry Windsor’s memoir in protest over the royal’s remarks in his book about his number of kills in Afghanistan.

He told Sky News: "In our catastrophic time, when we have so many wars, to destroy art is much more taboo than to destroy the life of a person.

"Since Julian Assange has been in prison ... freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of information has started to be more and more repressed. I have this feeling very strongly now.”

Ms Assange, who has two children with her husband, said: “Which is the greater taboo: destroying art or destroying human life?

“Dead Man’s Switch is a work of art. Julian’s political imprisonment is an act of real terrorism against democracy.”

Mr Assange has been held at Belmarsh prison since his arrest in April 2019 after leaving the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he had claimed political asylum in June 2012.