GagWatch

Corinne Diserens, the director of an Italian museum who refused to give in to pressure from Catholics to remove a sculpture of a crucified frog sculpture, has been sacked (via).

The four foot high piece by Martin Kippenberg – which is intended as a self-portrait of the artist “in a state of profound crisis” – leapt to prominence earlier this year when Franz Pahl, president of the regional government in the mountainous north-east of Italy, went on hunger strike and wound up in hospital in a protest over the frog’s appearance. Not one to miss a bandwagon once it’s started rolling, the Pope joined in, claiming – in essence – that only Christians should be allowed to use cross-based imagery.

[The sculpture] injured the religious feeling of many people who see in the cross the symbol of the love of God and of our salvation which deserves recognition and religious devotion.

Disrens refused to budge, pointing out that the museum had a right to artistic freedom, and she kept the frog on display as originally planned from May to September. Diserens had accused local politicians in the staunchly Catholic region of trying to exploit the issue ahead of the provincial elections.

But a majority of the museum’s board of directors disagreed and instead dismissed her this week. The official reason given by the museum was that Ms Diserens had caused a “difficult financial situation” by overspending her budget, but supporters said she was being punished for the row over the frog.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the SaLon Gallery in west London is under police surveillance after being attacked earlier this week.

The gallery had mounted an exhibition by Sarah Maple a Muslim artist whose work reveals the confusion that many young Muslims face within the context of contemporary western society. Inevitably enough, some Muslims took exception to this sort of thinking and reacted violently – smashing windows and doors and making a series of abusive, anonymous phone calls to the gallery.

A spokeswoman for SaLon said the gallery was receiving about 12 abusive phone calls a day and emails condemning the show. Staff had to call police last week after an angry woman came in to complain. “She was in a full burqa and was irate and upset. Her behaviour was quite threatening,” added the spokeswoman.

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