It’s Not Easy Being Green and Crucified

Travel Blog • Valerie Conners • 09.05.08 | 1:00 PM ET

As if Italians didn’t have enough cultural curiosities to be concerned about these days, now they’re dealing with the fallout from a sculpture depicting a 4-foot-high frog nailed to a cross and clutching a beer mug and an egg.

The work, on display at a museum in the tiny town of Bolzano, has earned the wrath of Pope Benedict and the Vatican, Reuters reports, with the latter writing that the sculpture “wounds the religious sentiments of so many people who see in the cross the symbol of God’s love.”

The museum has stood its ground and continues to display the sculpture. The museum’s president, Alois Lageder, tells Reuters the decision comes “in order to safeguard the autonomy of art institutions.”