It’s a frog’s life

It’s not often frogs make it onto MWW, but one did recently when we carried a story pointing out an amusing post on the Freethinker‘s blog about a frog. Not just any old frog, you understand. No, this was a crucified frog, and it got Catholics hopping (it’s a pity some of them don’t just croak).

There was outrage that the crucified-frog sculpture had gone on show at all at the Bolzano Museum of Modern Art in Italy. Then it was learned that Pope Ratzo was holidaying nearby, and Catholics demanded that the piece, part of the artist Martin Kippenberger’s “Fred the Frog” series should be taken down.

Well, here’s a pleasing sequel to that story. The frog stays. The museum has said that it will continue displaying the sculpture after the board of the foundation of the museum voted to keep the work on view.

Earlier this month, Ratzinger wrote a letter to Franz Pahl, president of the Trentino-Alto Adige region, which includes Bolzano, denouncing the sculpture. It had “offended the religious feelings of many people who consider the cross a symbol of God’s love and of our redemption,” Pahl quoted the pope as writing in the letter.


One Response to “It’s a frog’s life”

  1. Stuart H. says:

    I hope Pahl wrote back to Ratface saying something along the lines that religion offends many people who consider free speech a symbol of civilisation.

    By the way, isn’t Kippenberger married to Bette Midler? Wonder what Ratface would have made of the German concert she did where she got the entire audience singing along to that old ‘Hitler has only got one ball’ ditty?