A London art gallery plans to document the doomed punk romance between Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.
Among the items in a retrospective punk show opening at the Hospital gallery in September is a blood-splattered poster from room 100 of New York’s Chelsea Hotel, where Vicious allegedly stabbed Spungen to death on Oct. 12, 1978.
Art dealer Paul Stolper and editor Andrew Wilson, who own a trove of original Pistols’ posters, T-shirts and handwritten lyrics displayed in the show, told the Independent on Sunday newspaper that items from the couple’s hotel room had been sold by Vicious’ mother, Anne Beverley, who died in 1996.
They couldn’t say where the blood on the poster for the Pistols’ album “Never Mind the Bollocks” came from.
Vicious was charged with second-degree murder, but died of a heroin overdose, at age 21, before standing trial.
The gallery’s show, which also includes clothes from the shop run by punk pioneers Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, runs Sept. 24 to Jan. 23.