Chinese artist Lu Pingyuan travels from Shanghai to Manchester to steal a headless ghost from a Bolton pub.
It is believed that the ghost belongs to James Stanley – the seventh Earl of Derby. Stanley was a royalist whose family originally owned a pub – Scythe – the 4th oldest pub in the UK.
It is believed that the earl spent his last few hours at the inn before being taken out and hanged – he was beheaded in 1651 at the end of the Civil War.
The chair on which the count sat before his death still stands in the pub.
Pingyuan decided to capture Earl’s ghost in 2014 after seeing a video of him. He follows the ghost to the scythe toilet and casts a “spell” to trap it in a bottle.
Pingyuan recently exhibited this ghost in a traveling exhibition. Richard Greenwood, the owner of the pub, wrote a letter to Pingyuan when he learned that the exhibition was being held at the China Contemporary Art Center in Manchester.
Griwood said that he should have known Pingyuan’s intentions before exorcising the demon. He feels that this removal has disturbed the natural order of things, and he is losing that spirit.
Greenwood also claims that he allowed Stanley’s ghost to perform – for all to see – but afterward insisted that the ghost be returned to his house in the pub.
