‘Doubly erased’: artwork recording names of domestic violence victims removed from Melbourne museum

Dans Bain with her artwork, The Lost Petition, outside Parliament House in Canberra. She says decision to remove it from museum in Melbourne means victims have been ‘doubly erased’. Photograph: Ian Cutmore

An artwork recognising almost 1,000 women and children killed by men in Australia has been removed from a Melbourne museum, partly on the grounds it could traumatise some visitors.

Melbourne artist Dans Bain was asked on Wednesday to remove her 30 metre work, The Lost Petition, from the Her Place Women’s Museum before Friday’s opening of an exhibition celebrating 25 years of women in politics, curated by the Australian Labor party-affiliated network Emily’s List.