The online art gallery Artfinder has removed five paintings depicting offensive and racist imagery following a letter from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). 

UKLFI wrote to Art Discovery Ltd on 29 August 2025, pointing out that four pictures by Wim Carrette in the catalogue were antisemitic and another painting by him was offensive to Catholics. Wim Carrette has now been removed from Artfinder altogether.

Four of Wim Carretts’s pictures equated the prime minister of the Jewish state, Benjamin Netanyahu, and/or Jewish-Israeli soldiers with Nazi war criminals. UKLFI pointed out to Artfinder that these paintings were antisemitic according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, adopted by the UK government.  They were also examples of Holocaust inversion, the appropriation of the extreme suffering of the Jewish victims of the Holocaust to characterise Jews, or the Jewish state, as the perpetrator of a new “Holocaust” on Palestinians.

Equating Israelis or Jews with the Nazis who attempted to wipe them out is grossly offensive to Jews, as it scratches deep wounds by invoking the painful collective memory of the Holocaust. Holocaust inversion is also potentially the most significant component in the incitement of racial hatred against Jews, because Nazism is considered to be the epitome of evil.

UKLFI explained to Artfinder that displaying the antisemitic art online could breach Section 127(1) of the Communications Act 2003, which prohibits the sending of grossly offensive messages or other matter by a public electronic communications network.

UKLFI’s letter also referred to Wim Carrette’s painting ‘Return of the God-ss’ (2017), in which the late pope Benedict is shown wearing his customary scarlet “capello romano” hat bearing an SS Totenkopf (skull symbol).

A spokesperson for UKLFI commented: “We are pleased that Artfinder has promptly removed the offensive artworks.  While we are in favour of freedom of expression in Art and elsewhere, we do not believe that offensive, antisemitic artworks, which could have the effect of stirring up racial hatred, should be advertised for sale.  We hope that Artfinder will put in place a procedure to screen artwork on its website for antisemitism or other racial hatred.”