Controversial artwork Piss Christ vandalised in France

A man took a hammer to a controversial photograph of a crucifix bathed in urine at an art exhibition in France. The modern art museum, the Collection Lambert, in southern France, said an assailant destroyed the photograph by American artist Andres Serrano, "Immersion (Piss Christ)" on Sunday and apparently accidentally damaged another of the artist's works while struggling with a guard.



It was not immediately clear whether the assailant was part of a demonstration a day earlier by a right-wing group denouncing the 1987 photograph as blasphemous and demanding its removal from the exhibition, entitled "I Believe in Miracles." According to police, citing witnesses, two people tried to enter the museum late on Sunday morning carrying a can of paint spray and a chisel in their jackets.

The guard removed the objects - just as a third person took a hammer to "Immersion." The attacker struggled with a guard, but helped by an accomplice, managed to escape, police said. In the struggle, he apparently damaged another work, "The Church (Sister Jeanne-Myriam)," which shows a nun praying.



Serrano made the controversial work by placing a crucifix in urine and blood, and it has drawn criticism in the past from some Christian groups. Young far-right Christian activists from the General Alliance Against Racism and for the Respect of the French and Christian Identity is taking the Collection Lambert to court to try to have the crucifix photograph removed from the exhibit. The group denounced the photograph saying it "insults and injures Christians at the heart of their faith."