Anti-Semitic graffiti will not be cleaned off a giant sculpture at France’s Palace of Versailles after the country’s culture ministry agreed to demands by artist Anish Kapoor that it stay.
Dubbed the “queen’s vagina,” the controversial steel funnel and the rocks around it were sprayed with phrases such as “SS blood sacrifice” and “the second RAPE of the nation by DEVIANT JEWISH activism” at the weekend.
The sculpture had already been attacked in June and then cleaned, but Kapoor said that this time he wanted the graffiti to remain to bear witness to hatred.
France’s culture ministry agreed late Monday, and said panels next to the work would explain what happened.
“It’s the artist’s choice. The choice to show that some today have a problem with freedom of creation,” it said in a statement.
“The work was very seriously defaced, those responsible will be punished.”
— AFP
Chateau de Versailles workers clean the sculpture ‘Dirty Corners’ by British artist Anish Kapoor, after someone splattered paint on it in the gardens of the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris, France, Thursday, June 18, 2015. The sculpture is nicknamed ‘The Queen’s Vagina’ (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
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