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Despite protests from the Pope and from a regional government official, an Italian museum has refused to remove a modern art sculpture of a green frog, crucified while holding a beer mug in one hand and an egg in the other. Reuters reported yesterday that the board of Bolzano's Museion by majority vote decided that the sculpture called Zuerst die Fuesse (Feet First) would stay during the remainder of the exhibit of which it is a part-- a retrospective of the art of German artist Martin Kippenberger. Franz Pahl, president of the regional government, called the sculpture "blasphemy and a disgusting piece of trash." Pahl released excerpts from a letter from the Vatican saying that the sculpture wounds the religious sentiments of many people. While Claudio Strinati, a superintendent of Rome's state museums, supported the museum board, Italy's culture minister, Sandro Bondi, said museums that receive state funds should not "exalt artworks of desecration, of useless provocation and of nonsense".

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