Organizers of an exhibition on the relationship between homosexuality and art said Wednesday they were removing a controversial sculpture depicting Pope Benedict XVI in drag.The exhibit drew protests from the Catholic Anti-Defamation League, which threatened to seek charges against the organizers for defaming a head of state.
The group expressed outrage at "the vulgar offense against Christ's vicar and the feelings of Roman Catholics," the group said in a statement.
The sculpture, titled "Miss Kitty," shows the pope in a blond bob wig wearing nothing but a stole, a pair of panties and thigh-high stockings.
Organizers postponed the opening by three days to remove the sculpture and another controversial piece featuring a photo that appeared in the Italian media of Premier Roman Prodi's spokesman talking to a transvestite, whose face is superimposed in the work with an image of Jesus Christ.
They also have withdrawn the catalogs and were reprinting new ones without photos of the two exhibits.
"It was made clear to us that it would be better to remove the pieces," curator Eugenio Viola told The Associated Press.
Viola said the exhibit was intended to be provocative.
"The value of art from the period of the avant-garde onward has been to free oneself from the dogmatic and ecclesiastic censors," he said.
The "Miss Kitty" piece by Paolo Schmidlin has been bought by Milan's top culture official, Vittorio Sgarbi, who also helped back the exhibit, his office confirmed. The price was not immediately known.
The exhibition opens Thursday in the Palazzo della Ragione and runs through Sept. 16.
Organizers were to decide whether to ban the show to children under 18.
Sotto Voce: No different to what he normally wears except we would have been seeing more than we would really wish to lets be honest
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Sotto Voce