Avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, widow of John Lennon, watches as their son Sean Lennon uses scissors to cut a piece of her dress at a Paris theatre, September 15, 2003. Yoko Ono preforms her one-woman art show ‘Cut Piece‘ in which members of the audience are invited on stage to use scissors to cut off a piece of her dress and send it to the one they love. PHOTO – REUTERS

PARIS - John Lennon‘s widow Yoko Ono watched on as dozens of strangers cut her clothes off piece by piece in a Paris theatre on Monday of the previous week, leaving the artist on stage wearing nothing but her underwear. The 70-year old Ono first performed her „Cut Piece“ show in 1964 in Japan as a protest for peace. Almost 40 years on, the slender artist again asked her audience to cut strips off her tight black top and long layered skirt, to send the cut-out pieces to a person they love. Art-lovers from all ages advanced towards the stage, with the artist‘s son Sean Lennon being the first one to cut a hole into her sleeve. Ono looked straight ahead and barely moved as a man dressed in a suit cut a piece off her skirt to reveal a large part of her thigh and a young woman cut through the strap of her bra. Ono has continued to stage unusual peace campaigns after her husband, ex-Beatle John Lennon, was shot dead by a deranged fan in December 1980. Ahead of the war in Iraq, she took out full-page advertisements in major newspapers, conveying the message: „Imagine Peace…Spring 2003“. Ono said: „In the 1960s I did it out of anger. But now, I‘m doing it for love, and that makes a big difference,“ she said. Reuters