'JESUS' FROG TO CROAK IT.

Byline: By MIRROR REPORTER

AMODERN art sculpture portraying a crucified green frog that Pope Benedict has condemned as blasphemous may have to hop off.

The board of a museum in Bolzano, Italy, was meeting yesterday to choose whether to side with the pontiff and other opponents of the frog or with those who say it should be defended as a work of art.

The Vatican wrote a letter of support in the Pope's name to Franz Pahl, president of the regional government who opposed the sculpture.

Pahl said: "Surely this is not a work of art but a blasphemy and a disgusting piece of trash that upsets many people."

The Vatican said the work "wounds the religious sentiments of so many who see in the cross the symbol of God's love".

Designed by the late German artist Martin Kippenberger, the wooden sculpture depicts a frog about 4ft high nailed to a brown cross and holding a beer mug in one outstretched hand and an egg in another.

He considered it a self-portrait illustrating human angst.

Called Zuerst die Fuesse - Feet First - it wears a green loin cloth and is nailed through the hands and the feet in the manner of Jesus Christ.

But Claudio Strinati, for Rome's state museums, said: "Art must always be free and the artist should not have any restrictions on freedom of expression."

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