"Porn" Art Sparks EU Storm

Controversial images from an art project promoting Austria's EU presidency were removed by organisers after a storm of protest. The work by Spain's Carlos Aires, showing three people writhing naked while wearing masks of Bush, Chirac and the British monarch, had been condemned as pornographic by opposition politicians and Catholic clerics. The poster, along with another piece showing a woman sprawled, legs apart, wearing nothing except panties bearing the European flag, have been removed from the "Europart" project. The contentious images were among a series of 148 being flashed on billboards around Vienna and Salzburg ahead of Austria's turn at the rotating EU presidency, which begins on January 1. Those in charge of the project, involving 75 artists from around the European Union's 25 members, however, defended their right to artistic freedom. Irish Art