'Forbidden art' show organizers in Moscow convicted of fueling religious hatred

Organizers of a "forbidden art" exhibition in Moscow have been convicted of fueling national and religious hatred for displaying such works of art as Jesus Christ with the head of Mickey Mouse

Yury Samodurov, former head of the Sakharov Museum that staged the show, and Andrei Yerofeyev, a former curator at the Tretyakov gallery, were convicted of "committing acts aimed at inciting national hatred and strife," according to RIA Novosti.

The two men, who staged the exhibit in 2006 to fight censorship of art in Russia, could have been jailed for up to five years. They were fined around $11,000.

Last week, 13 prominent Russian artists called on President Dimitry Medvedev to stop the trial, saying a guilty verdict would be a sentence "for the whole of Russian contemporary art."

Last month, in a letter to the church, Yerofeyev apologized if the show unintentionally offended Christians, the BBC reports.

Oleg Kassin, a representative of Council of the People, which filed the complaint with the court, told the AFP news agency that he had been disgusted by the exhibition which contained "anti-Christian" images.

"If you like expressing yourself freely, do it at home, invite some close friends," he said. But when it's on public display "especially if it contains insults, it's no longer art but a provocation."

Cockroaches

A group of artists protested the charges by trying to release thousands of cockroaches in the court building before Monday's hearing.

The stunt was organized by Voina, a radical artist group that made headlines in June for painting a giant penis on a St. Petersburg bridge.

Seven activists, some not affiliated with Voina, were involved in the stunt. Two Voina members, Pyotr Verzilov and Anastasiya Rybachenko, were detained and face unspecified fines, RIA-Novosti reported.

The cockroaches did not delay the Tagansky District Court from handing down the guilty verdicts to Yury Samodurov, former curator of the Sakharov Museum, and Andrei Yerofeyev, former head of the contemporary art department at the Tretyakov Gallery, for inciting religious hatred with their "Forbidden Art" exhibition in 2007.