In the context of this artwork, explain the Demands and insults of the The theft.
We have stolen the Picasso from the National Gallery as a protest against the niggardly funding of the fine arts in this hick State and against the clumsy, unimaginitive stupidity of the administration and distribution of that funding.
Two conditions must be publicly agreed upon if the painting is to be returned.
1. The Minister must announce a commitment to increasing the funding of the arts by 10% in real terms over the next three years, and must agree to appoint an independent committee to enquire into the mechanics of the funding of the arts with a view to releasing money from its administration and making it available to artists.
2. The Minister must announce a new annual prize for painting open to artists under thirty years of age. Five prizes of $5000 are to be awarded. A fund is to be established to ensure that the real value of the prizes is maintained each year. The prize is to be called The Picasso Ransom.
Because the Minister of the Arts is also Minister of Plod, we are allowing him a sporting seven days in which to try to have us arrested while he deliberates.  There will be no negotiation. At the end of seven days if our demands have not been met the painting will be destroyed and our campaign continue.
Your very humble servants,
Australian Cultural Terrorists
The "Australian Cultural Terrorists" wrote two letters to Mathews, who was addressed as "Rank Mathews". The first letter demanded that funding for the arts be increased by ten per cent over a three-year period. The thieves also demanded that an art prize be set up, worth A$$25 000 and to be called "The Picasso Ransom" prize, or for five separate prizes to be awarded to young Australian artists. The thieves communiqués were loaded with insults; the first letter referred to Mathews, who was also Police Minister, as "Minister of Plod", while the second letter described him as a "tiresome old bag of swamp gas" and a "pompous fathead". The second letter also threatened that if the demands were not met, the painting would be burnt.
Plod