For goodness sakes people. Eight Muslims from the hard lines Islamic group Ulama Anjumane Al Baiyeniat (who?) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, have been arrested for damaging a group of six white stork sculptures.The men all armed with shovels and hammers began whacking the 41ft (12.5m) tall structures after an attempt to pull them down with ropes failed. Hmm, they meant business. Ah, it seems this group has a jihad against statues in general because they are seen as a form of idol worship (hmm, better not tell Paula Abdul, she’ll cry!). The eight have been charged with creating chaos and attacking security officials.The sculptor Mrinal Haque has stated the statues which were erected in 1989 had nothing to do with Islam (well they do now!).

Holy public art Batman, the 3m tall Big Penguin in the Tasmanian town of Penguin could be toxic and whats more it could have made thousands of people sick. Hmm, if tests on the big old cement seabird prove positive, then it will have to be put down. Seems a cement worker raised the alarm after he had fears about people’s safety from the leaking asbestos particles. The Big Penguin has been around since 1975 with hundreds of thousands of people standing next to it for a photo or a curious inspection without knowing they could be snorting deadly particles. And what if their worst fears are realized? Penguin’s Mayor Mike Downie says “I would think we would be lynched from the nearest tree if council decided, that if it was a danger to the public, not to replace it.” Hmm, I think there will be a lynching regardless, if asbestos is found!

UPDATE: Yay, Big Penguin is safe! Go give him a hug…

The statue of ANC activist Gert Sibande in central Bethal (South Africa) has had a paint job done on it (but not in a good way).Nope, vandals went and painted him white. Mission accomplished,they got the reaction they were looking for. Mpumalanga premier Thabang Makwetla angrily declared “I wish to condemn in the strongest possible terms the vandalisation and defacing of the newly erected statue. These are acts of remnants of racism [and] white supremacy who must be isolated and defeated,”.Sibande was an African National Congress activist and a leader of the farm labourers who initiated the potato boycott 1958.

The controversial statue of Queen Victoria outside the Queen Victoria Building, in Sydney, was created by Irish sculptor, John Hughes, in 1904. The statue was unveiled by King Edward VII on the Kildare front of Leinster House (which was at the time the headquarters of the Royal Dublin Society), in Ireland. When Leinster House became the official seat of Oireachtas Eireann (the parliament of the Irish Free State) the statue became the focus of extreme scrutiny and criticism. Surprisingly, she escaped being blown up (but I guess, only just). Many were horrified that a statue of Queen Victoria could still be standing outside the front of the parliament of the Irish Free State. By 1947 they had had enough and she was unceremoniously removed and thrown into the main courtyard (along with some disused State carriages) at The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. There she sat year after year, with nobody quite knowing what to do with her. During a Parliament sitting held on 28 May 1974 in Dublin the speaker (Mr Lemass) was quoted as saying ” I think we all agree it is one of the most ugly statues of that royal lady.” She was put on the “Public Art” market, but not a soul was interested in the “Auld Bitch”. Luckily, Australia came to the rescue, in 1983, when the Sydney City Council began a worldwide search for an “unwanted” statue of Queen Victoria (what were the chances?), to be erected outside of the Queen Victoria Building. Imagine the luck of the Irish when they got wind of this. A quick search located the rather neglected queen in the small town of Daingean (don’t ask me how it ended up there). The Republic of Ireland were so happy to off load the statue, they decided to give it to the people of Sydney in the spirit of “goodwill”. In the late 1980’s she left Ireland for good and arrived for a fresh start in Australia, to mark Sydney’s 200th anniversary, in 1987. So now she sits high on her throne, looking down on the people of Sydney, being relatively ignored, as if she was still in Ireland.

A frog nailed to a cross with a beer mug and an egg in it’s hands has caused quite a commotion in the mountains of Northern Italy. The sculpture is by German artist Martin Kippenberge and the locals are none too happy. The reason it seems is it is too close to the Pope’s summer holiday house. Local Catholics have deemed the little amphibian a “public obscenity” and want it taken out of the Bolzano Museum of Modern Art. Does this mean Pope Benedict is intending to visit the museum? Bless. The problem has grown to aquatic proportions as Bishop of Bolzano and Bressanone,revealed that he had discussed the sculpture with the Pope.Hmm too much time on his hands! Could it get any better ? You bet. The Union for South Tyrol, a separatist group, collected 10,000 signatures for a petition demanding the removal of the crucified froggy and Franz Pahl, the president of Trentino-Alto Adige regional council, has gone on hunger strike in protest over the exhibit. If people only had this type of passion over war and famine!
Oh and if you think it’s the first time the Bolzano Museum has been in trouble, think again. About two years ago the Bolzano museum hit the headlines by displaying a work of art consisting of a toilet flushing to the accompaniment of Italy’s national anthem.

Some poor soul visiting the Royal Academy’s summer exhibition tripped and slid straight into Christina, a 9ft sculpture by the Costa Rican artist Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez. How would you be? The sculpture shattered into a thousands pieces, as I presume the culprit did too. If that was me I think I would play dead or at least pretend I was hurt more than the sculpture. Just to add insult to injury the sculpture, valued at 6,000 pounds, was said to be the artists “star” piece. But she shouldn’t despair, Nick Flynn takes the honors of being the biggest klutz, he tripped over his shoelace at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, sending three Qing dynasty porcelain vases shattering into devaluation.

I don’t know if billionaire Paul Allen is happy or nervous about a petition flying around South Lake Union’s neighborhood of Cascade Park. It seems the locals are lining up to sign a petition to have a 300-foot-tall (91.4-metre) bronze statue of him erected, but not in a good way. Led by Kapow! coffee shop, businesses in the area are none too happy with his development company, Vulcan Inc, who have lured trendy shops into the area making rent triple. Vulcan owns about one-third of the South Lake Union district. One local declared “If you’ve got buildings going up too tall for people to see the lake, a 300-foot statue is kind of speaking to that, isn’t it?”
Kapow! was also behind a campaign against Vulcan’s street car project, dubbing the trolley car “the slut”. They even sold “Ride the Slut” t-shirts. And what does Vulcan’s spokeswoman have to say about Kapow’s new venture “I think Kapow! has found themselves a wonderful way to make more money poking fun at Paul Allen than selling coffee.” (ouch!). Stay tuned, this is going to be one hell of a fight batman!