Angry protest at Arlington museum? Hardly …

Sometimes it takes just one e-mail to spark a huge news story.

Of course, that e-mail has to include protests and claims of nudity and moral corruption.

An e-mail that landed in my inbox on Nov. 13 titled "Protest at Arlington Heights Museum Reception" had all three.

"My neighbor and I visited the museum with our children and saw a huge art piece on display which is totally disgusting and shameful," the e-mail states. "It shows complete nudity of a young adult thus promotes moral corruption of our youth. We found the public display of the piece very appalling. It is the responsibility of the public museum and its staff to abide to the moral standard of our society and not promote maliciousness [sic] disregard of right conduct owed to the community."

The Daily Herald -- and several other media outlets --all received this e-mail. It was about a painting by Fred DeAsis called "Innocence" at the Arlington Heights Historical Museum.

DeAsis' piece shows the back of a young person who is curled up next to a wall or couch. It's unclear if painting's subject is male or female. It's also unclear if the person is a child or young adult.

What is clear is that the person is afraid of something and has red marks on his or her back. The work is supposed to describe the pain and isolation of child and of spousal abuse, DeAsis said.

The e-mailer provided a phone number and promised a number of upset people would show up to protest the artwork that night, which was when those picked for the "Arlington Artists on Display" were to be honored.

We bit.

Another reporter and I went to the museum that night and wrote articles. Later that week, TV crews stopped by the museum to report on the same story. The TV reporters said some people called the painting "porn" but no one ever interviewed those critics.

But the time the story hit the national news wire, it had exploded into a full-blown "porn at a historical museum" story.

"Protesters threatened to harass guests during the evening reception of artists and dignitaries … and even used their cars to block the streets leading to the gallery. There is also a massive e-mail campaign by a religious-rightist group to shut down the exhibit," one TV station reported.

The problem is, the protest never happened.

There wasn't a single fist-shaking resident at the museum Nov. 13.

The phone number on the e-mail didn't work when I tired to call it. I sent a reply to the e-mailer but never heard back. No other media outlet was able to talk to the person who was so outraged to begin with, either.

In total, the museum never saw a single protester and received a total of one e-mail criticizing the painting, said Mickey Horndasch, the museum's curator.

Horndasch handled the situation perfectly. She opened the museum's doors to the media. When asked about the "protesters," she said everyone is entitled to their opinion and stood by DeAsis, who, by the way, has art studios in Arlington Heights, Chicago and New York and is writing a book on ancient Asian arts.

It seems the only thing the "protest scare" did was increase foot traffic at the small museum for one day.

"We had about 25 people come in that Friday," said Horndasch this week. "That's a really big Friday for us. On a typical Friday, we'll get at the most eight people. Usually, we get somewhere between eight and zero."