The Los Angeles Times’s David Ng reports on the purchase of a Lego Auschwitz for the Warsaw Museum of Modern Art’s collection:

When Polish artist Zbigniew Libera created a faux Lego concentration camp toy set in 1996, he drew widespread criticism from people who believed he was making light of the Holocaust. Since then, his death-camp toys have been shown in museums and galleries around the world, including New York’s Jewish Museum in the 2002 exhibition “Mirroring Evil.”

This week, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland, announced on its website that it has acquired Libera’s concentration camp creations. The museum said it purchased the artwork on Dec. 30 from a Norwegian art collector for 55,000 euros, or approximately $71,800. The museum described the pieces as “one of the most important works of contemporary Polish art.”

The work features Lego renderings of crematoria and barracks as well as scenes depicting skeletal prisoners being beaten by guards. A 1997 report in The Times stated that the creations were so disturbing that the Lego Group tried to persuade Libera to withdraw them from public view. (The company eventually backed down from its demands.)

Warsaw art museum buys Zbigniew Libera’s ‘Lego’ concentration camp (Los Angeles Times)