A controversial sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor on display in the gardens of France's Palace of Versailles, and which has become known as the "queen's vagina", has been vandalised for the second time.
Officially known as "Dirty Corner," the giant steel funnel that Kapoor himself has described as "very sexual" was on Sunday (local time) covered in anti-Semitic graffiti in white paint, said Versailles president Catherine Pegard.
Phrases such as "Queen sacrificed, twice insulted" and "the second rape of the nation by deviant Jewish activism" covered the sculpture by the British-Indian artist.
"This act of intolerable violence against the work of an international artists shocks and saddens me," Pegard told journalists after inspecting the damage.
The 60-metre long, 10-metre high steel-and-rock abstract sculpture is set up in the garden aimed directly at the royal chateau, which attracts five million tourists a year.
When it was first unveiled in June the piece was sprayed with yellow paint.
The sculpture is one of several by Kapoor on exhibition in the gardens and inside one room of the palace until November.
Kapoor has described the piece as "the vagina of a queen who is taking power."
Kapoor's exhibition is one of the most controversial at Versailles since the authorities in 2008 opened the palace and its grounds to contemporary artists.
In 2008, Versailles hosted works by American artist Jeff Koons, and in 2010 by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami.
"The very controlled landscape of Versailles is drawn into instability. The grounds become uncertain and moving. Waters swirl. The mirrors that are so central to Versailles now distort it," reads the description of Kapoor's display.
"This world is perhaps about to tip over."
AFP
