Controversial statue gets a makeover
Just eight months after being unveiled, a controversial statue of
Pope John Paul II in Rome is receiving a major makeover. The 16-foot
statue, which stands just outside the city's main railway station, since
last May has been met by harsh criticism from locals and art experts
alike.
The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano,
criticized it for bearing "little resemblance" to the image of the late
pope and described the head as "excessively spherical." Federico
Mollicone, president of Rome's city council culture commission, called
the statue "a permanent and sacrilegious mud stain" on the memory of
John Paul II.
More than eight out of ten people who responded to a poll by the newspaper Il Messaggero
said they didn't like the statue, and Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno was
forced by the criticism to form a commission of experts to evaluate its
fate.
