Photo: Italian museum defies pope over crucified frog exhibit

Reuters:

An Italian museum on Thursday defied Pope Benedict and refused to remove a modern art sculpture portraying a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg that the Vatican had condemned as blasphemous.

The board of the Museion museum in the northern city of Bolzano decided by a majority vote that the frog was a work of art and would stay in place for the remainder of an exhibition.

The wooden sculpture by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger depicts a frog about 1 metre 30 cm (4 feet) high nailed to brown cross and holding a beer mug in one outstretched hand and an egg in another.

Called "Zuerst die Fuesse," (Feet First), it wears a green loin cloth and is nailed through the hands and the feet in the manner of Jesus Christ. Its green tongue hangs out of its mouth.

The claim that Pope Benedict has personally taken an interest in and spoken out about this exhibit raised my eyebrows. This claim originates from Franz Pahl, who has already been hospitalized over the exhibit after he went on a hunger strike to protest it:

Franz Pahl, a regional government official who has led a campaign to remove the work, told the Italian news agency ANSA Aug. 27 that he had received a letter of support from the Vatican Secretariat of State expressing the pope's sentiments.

According to Pahl, the letter said the pope believes the sculpture "has wounded the religious sentiment of the many people who see in the cross the symbol of God's love and our salvation."

A Vatican source confirmed that a letter was sent, but did not confirm the contents. (CNS)

So it's not entirely proven that Pope Benedict himself has spoken against the exhibit, which will eventually visit Los Angeles and New York. Can anyone remember if Pope Benedict has publicly (or has been proven to have spoken privately) about an offensive art exhibit before?

As for the museum/artist's defense:

Museum officials have defended the work, saying it was intended as a self-portrait showing the torment faced by the artist. The sculpture was made in 1990, and the artist, who was said to consider the frog his alter ego, created other variations on the same theme.

What are your thoughts?